Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition
Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Components
- Game Setup
- Game Structure
- Key Concepts
- Gameplay
- Action: Advance
- Action: Found City
- Action: Activate City
- Action: Move Units
- Action: Increase Happiness
- Action: Influence Culture
- Status Phase
- Action Cards
- Objective Cards
- Exploration
- Combat
- Events
- Wonders
- Appendix
- Variants
- Glossary of Terms and Icons
Components
Boards & Tiles
- 4 Starting Region tiles — 1 per Player
- 4 Player aids — 1 per Player
- 16 Regular Region tiles
- 1 Round track
- 4 Player boards — 1 per Player
- 5 Civilizations Starting Regions tiles (Civilizations expansion)
- 15 Civilization boards (Civilizations expansion)
Cards
- 38 Event cards (20 of which are Civilizations expansion Event cards)
- 42 Action cards
- 32 Objective cards (6 of which are Civilizations expansion Objective cards)
- 8 Wonder cards
- 45 Leader cards (Civilizations expansion)
Cubes & Dice
- 200+ cubes — ~50 Red, ~50 Purple, ~50 Blue, ~50 Yellow
- 9 12-sided dice
Resource Markers
- 4 Food markers — 1 per Player
- 4 Ore markers — 1 per Player
- 4 Wood markers — 1 per Player
- 4 Idea markers — 1 per Player
- 4 Gold markers — 1 per Player
Tokens
- 50 Culture tokens
- 60 Mood tokens
- 1 Round marker
- 6 Exhausted Land markers
- 1 First Player marker
City Pieces
Note: All of these, except for Settlements and Wonders, are referred to as "Buildings."
- 38 Settlements — 7 Red, 7 Purple, 7 Blue, 7 Yellow, 10 Grey
- 20 Ports — 5 Red, 5 Purple, 5 Blue, 5 Yellow
- 8 Wonders: Great Arena, Great Mausoleum, Great Gardens, Great Pyramid, Great Library, Great Statue, Great Lighthouse, Great Wall
- 20 Temples — 5 Red, 5 Purple, 5 Blue, 5 Yellow
- 20 Obelisks (Civilizations expansion) — 5 Red, 5 Purple, 5 Blue, 5 Yellow
- 20 Fortresses — 5 Red, 5 Purple, 5 Blue, 5 Yellow
- 20 Markets (Civilizations expansion) — 5 Red, 5 Purple, 5 Blue, 5 Yellow
- 20 Academies — 5 Red, 5 Purple, 5 Blue, 5 Yellow
- 20 Observatories (Civilizations expansion) — 5 Red, 5 Purple, 5 Blue, 5 Yellow
Units
- 16 Settlers — 4 Red, 4 Purple, 4 Blue, 4 Yellow
- 20 Ships — 4 Red, 4 Purple, 4 Blue, 4 Yellow, plus 4 Black (Civilizations expansion)
- 20 Cavalry (Civilizations expansion) — 4 Red, 4 Purple, 4 Blue, 4 Yellow, 4 Grey
- 84 Infantry — 16 Red, 16 Purple, 16 Blue, 16 Yellow, 20 Grey
- 20 Elephants (Civilizations expansion) — 4 Red, 4 Purple, 4 Blue, 4 Yellow, 4 Grey
- 4 Leaders (Civilizations expansion) — 1 Red, 1 Purple, 1 Blue, 1 Yellow
Component Limits
All players are limited to the number of components included in the game. For instance, you cannot have more than 7 Settlements or 5 Temples. Culture and Mood tokens are an exception to this and are unlimited. If you run out, use something else as a substitute.
Game Setup
Set up the game board in accordance with the images shown below. Each player's starting Region is placed faceup (pay attention to which side the Mountain space is on).
Note: The starting Regions are two-sided. The difference between the two sides is the placement of the Mountain and the Forest space. Which side is used depends on the map setup.
All regular Regions are randomly placed facedown and are known as "unrevealed" Regions.
In 3- and 4-player games, randomly determine seating position around the game board.
Regions — Each Region is made of four spaces, each of which contains a type of terrain. Any non-Sea space is referred to as a Land space. The terrain types are: Plains, Mountain, Forest, Barrens, Sea.
Each player selects a color and places the following in front of them:
- A Player board and Player aid.
- Cubes in their color to form a supply.
- City pieces in their color: 7 Settlements, 5 Temples, 5 Academies, 5 Fortresses, 5 Ports.
- (Civilizations expansion) Also include 5 Obelisks, 5 Markets, 5 Observatories.
- Units pieces in their color: 16 Infantry, 4 Ships, 4 Settlers.
- (Civilizations expansion) Also include 4 Elephants, 4 Cavalry, and 1 Leader.
- 5 Resource markers (Food, Wood, Ore, Ideas, Gold). The Food Resource is placed on space 2 of your Player board, and the others are placed on space 0.
- (Civilizations expansion) A random Civilization board.
- (Civilizations expansion) The 3 Leader cards matching their Civilization. Return any Leaders and boards from other Civilizations back to the box. They will not be used this game.
- (Civilizations expansion) Some Civilizations have an alternate starting Region that is shown on their Civilization board. For these Civilizations, replace the normal starting Region with the one shown. These are not dual sided like the normal starting regions. Place them so they are oriented with the Plains space in the usual location.
- Each player places a cube from their supply on the Farming Advance and Mining Advance. The cubes indicate which Advances you have, and all players start the game with these two Advances.
- Each player places 3 cubes from their supply in the three spaces of their Event tracker at the top right of their Player board.
- Each player starts their first city on the board by placing a Settlement on the Plains space of their starting Region. Place a Mood token next to the city, Happy-side up to show that the city is Happy, and place a Settler in the space near the city.
- Shuffle the Objective cards and place them facedown as the Objective deck. Shuffle the Event cards and place them facedown as the Event deck.
- (Civilizations expansion) If playing with the expansion, include the additional Event cards and additional Objective cards. These are marked with the expansion icon. Otherwise, place them back in the box. They will not be used this game.
- Shuffle the Action cards and place them facedown as the Action deck.
- Shuffle the Wonder cards and place them facedown as the Wonder deck.
- Each player then draws 1 Action card and 1 Objective card from the top of the decks. Action and Objective cards are placed into your hand, which is kept hidden from other players.
- Place the Barbarian Settlements (Grey), Barbarian Units (Grey), Culture tokens, Mood tokens, and dice nearby in a common supply.
- (Civilizations expansion) With the expansion, also place the black ships in the common supply.
- Place the Round track beside the game board. Use the front side of the track unless playing with the variant rule ["Variable End Game", pg. 35]. Place the Round marker on the first space (Age 1, Round 1).
- Randomly determine a first player (for example, highest roll on a die) and give that player the First Player marker.
Player Aid
The Player Aid contains important reference information. Once you are familiar with the game, you can play without it. The Player Aid is two sided, where the red side includes things from the Civilizations expansion.
Game Structure
The Game is divided into 6 Ages, with each Age divided into 3 Rounds followed by a Status Phase.
During each Round, each player will take a turn in which they must perform 3 Main Actions.
The first player takes the first turn, followed by the other players in clockwise order, until each player has taken a turn.
After 3 Rounds, there is a Status Phase, and then the next Age begins. The Round marker is used to keep track of Ages and Rounds.
Winning the Game
The game ends after 6 Ages, or earlier if any player has no cities on the board when entering the Status Phase. When the game ends, each player counts their Victory Points:
- 1 Victory Point per Settlement and Building
- ½ Victory Point for each Advance you have (do not round down)
- 2 Victory Points per completed Objective
- 4 Victory Points per Wonder (2 Victory Points if conquered)
- ? Victory Points from certain Event cards
- (Civilizations expansion) 2 Victory Points per defeated Leader
The player with the most Victory Points is declared the winner.
If players are tied for points, go through the above list one by one starting from the top. The winner is the player with the most points from Settlements and Buildings, then if tied, you move on to most points from Advances and so on. If still tied after going through all these, the tied players share the victory.
Key Concepts
Gaining / Spending Resources
There are 5 types of Resources in the game. Food, Ore, and Wood are collected by working the land around your cities. Ideas and Gold come from certain Advances and Buildings.
The Idea Resource can be used as Food when buying Advances and the Gold Resource can be used as any other Resource unless stated otherwise.
The top part of your Player board has a series of boxes with numbers ranging from 0-7 that is used to track how many of each of the Resources you currently have.
Whenever you gain a Resource, move the appropriate marker to the right. When you spend a Resource, move the appropriate marker to the left. You may never have more than 7 of any Resource; ignore any further gaining of a Resource once you reach this maximum. You cannot spend Resources you do not have.
Food Limit — The Food icon between 2 and 3 means that until you have the Storage Advance you cannot have more than 2 Food.
Culture & Mood Tokens
At various times during the game, you will gain one or more of these tokens. When you do, take them from the common supply and place them in front of you. There is no upper limit to how many tokens you may have.
Mood tokens are used to increase the happiness of your cities. The front side of the Mood tokens depict a happy face and are used to indicate the city is Happy. The back side depicts an angry face and is used to indicate an Angry city.
Culture tokens are used to exert your Cultural Influence over other cities, and when Constructing Wonders.
When spending Mood or Culture, place the tokens back into the common supply.
Player Trades
On your turn, you may trade with other players as a Free Action. You may freely trade any of the following.
- Resources
- Action cards in hand
- Objective cards in hand
- Wonder cards in hand
- Mood tokens
- Culture tokens
It is up to the players involved in the trade to agree in any way they choose. Any cards that are traded can be done so without showing the other player what the card is, or by showing the other player, if that is preferred. Any immediate trade deals must be fulfilled. However, verbal agreements of a diplomatic/political kind, as well as loans and transactions to happen at a later time, are allowed, but do not have to be fulfilled. Only the players' consciences and goals determine the validity of such agreements.
Example 1: You agree to do an immediate trade with another player, giving them 2 Wood and 1 Action card in return for 3 Mood tokens. This trade is carried out immediately and must be kept by both sides.
Example 2: You desperately need Food, and another player agrees to give you 2 Food right now in return for 1 Wood now and the next Objective card you draw. The Food and Wood trade happens immediately, but whether you give them your next Objective card is up to you.
Enemies
The term "enemy" is used throughout the game to mean anything not belonging to you. This could be another player or a Barbarian piece.
(Civilizations expansion) Pirates are considered enemies, like Barbarians.
City Size
The size of a city is equal to the number of city-pieces it has. Each Settlement, Building, and Wonder counts as a city-piece.
The size of a city primarily affects:
- How many Resources it Collects ["City Action: Collect", pg. 11]
- How many Units it Recruits ["City Action: Recruit", pg. 12]
- Range of Influence Culture ["Action: Influence Culture", pg. 16]
The maximum size of a city is 5. Also, a city cannot increase to a size larger than the number of cities you have. However, once a city has become a certain size, it stays that size even if you lose a number of cities.
Example: If you have 3 cities, none of your cities can grow to more than size 3.
Advances
The bottom part of your Player board shows 12 categories, each with 4 Advances.
Advances come in a number of categories and in each category the first Advance you buy must be the one at the top. Once you have the top Advance, you can freely buy any of the remaining Advances within that category.
Some Advances have text on them that include "As an Action." This means that it costs one of your Main Actions to do what the text says.
Gameplay
On your turn, you must perform 3 Main Actions.
There are 6 possible Main Actions to choose from, and you can perform them in any order and multiple times (although Influence Culture may only succeed once per turn).
On your turn, before or after any of your Main Actions, you may also perform any number of Free Actions you have access to, from Buildings, Advances, or Leaders. You can also spend a Main Action by doing the "As an Action" effect of an Advance or Action card.
The details of these Actions can be found on the relevant component or within the appropriate section of this rulebook.
The 6 standard Main Actions are:
- Advance
- Found city
- Activate city — select one of the following:
- Recruit Units
- Collect Resources
- Construct Building
- Move Units (up to 3 Units/groups)
- Increase Happiness
- Influence Culture (may only succeed once per turn)
Action: Advance
When you perform this Action, spend 2 Food to buy an Advance. Ideas and Gold can substitute for Food 1:1 when buying an Advance.
Move a cube from the Event tracker on your Player board to the slot corresponding to the Advance you bought. If the slot has a blue border, immediately gain 1 Culture token. If it has a yellow border, immediately gain 1 Mood token.
Example: If you buy the "Myths" advance, gain 1 Mood token.
Advances Triggering Events
If, after buying the Advance, there are now no cubes on your Event tracker, resolve an Event ["Events", pg. 25]. Then, refill your Event tracker with 3 new cubes from your supply.
Building Prerequisite Advances
Some Advances have the name of a Building next to them. In order to construct that specific Building, you must have that Advance.
Example: Constructing an Academy requires you to have the Writing Advance.
Government Advances
The three categories with a gold background are Government categories. The top Advance in each of these has a prerequisite Advance written next to them.
Example: You must already have Philosophy in order to buy Voting.
You can only have Advances from one Government category. However, during the Status Phase, you may change your Government ["Status Phase", pg. 18].
Civilization Advances (Civilizations expansion)
See details in ["Civilization Advances", pg. 32].
Summary of Advances
- You buy an Advance for 2 Food (Ideas and Gold may be used instead of Food).
- You must have the top Advance in a category before you can get any of the others in the category.
- The top of each Government Advance has a prerequisite.
- Certain Buildings can only be Constructed once you have the relevant Advance.
Why do Advances cost Food?
Historically, a surplus of Food was essential to technological and cultural development. It meant that fewer people had to devote all their time to produce the Food needed to survive, and could instead pursue other ways of life such as being craftsmen, clergymen, teachers, artists, thinkers, or soldiers.
Action: Found City
When you perform this Action, Found a new city by removing one of your Settlers from the board and replacing it with one of your Settlement pieces. You can Found a city on a space which meets all of the following criteria:
a. Must be a Land space b. Not Barren c. Contains no city d. Contains no enemy Units e. Contains no Exhausted Land marker
If you have no more Settlement pieces available, you cannot perform this Action.
Action: Activate City
When you perform this Action, choose one of your cities and then carry out one of the following Actions in that city:
- Collect Resources
- Construct a Building
- Recruit Units
If you activate a particular city more than once per turn, after the Action is resolved, reduce the Mood of the city by one step for each additional activation.
Angry cities can only be activated once per turn. If multiple activations reduces a city's Mood, the newly Angry city can still be activated one more time on that turn.
Example: The first activation of this Happy city has no effect on its mood. If you activate it a second time it becomes Neutral. If you activate it a third time, it becomes Angry.
You can increase the mood in a city again using the Increase Happiness action. See page 16.
Activate City: Collect
When you choose this Action, collect a number of Resources equal to the size of the city. If the city is Happy, 1 additional Resource is collected. If the city is Angry, only 1 Resource is collected, irrespective of its size.
You Collect Resources based on the terrain type of the spaces that are adjacent to the city as well as the space the city is on. Each space provides 1 Resource of the corresponding type when collected from, and can only be collected from once per activation.
You cannot Collect Resources from any space which contains enemy Units, an Exhausted Land marker, or another city, regardless of the owner.
Example: You choose to Collect a Food from the Sea (you have the Fishing advance) and an Ore from the Mountain. You really wanted to collect another Ore from the other Mountain, but the presence of Barbarians prevents you from doing so. You collect a Wood from the Forest instead.
Relevant Advances
- Storage — Your Food limit increases from 2 to 7.
- Irrigation — Your cities may Collect Food from Barren spaces.
- Husbandry — Once per turn, you may Collect from one Land space that is 2 spaces away. If you also have Roads, this increases to two Land spaces.
- Fishing — Your cities may Collect Food from one adjacent Sea space.
- Economic Liberty — Free Action: Pay 1 Mood token to perform a Collect Action, but this can be your only Collect Action this turn.
- Public Education — Once per turn, gain 1 Idea when collecting from a city with an Academy.
Activate City: Construct
When you choose this Action, you must pay 1 Food, 1 Ore, and 1 Wood to place one of your available Buildings in the city that you activated. The following rules apply:
- Each Building requires a specific Advance before you can construct it.
- You cannot Construct a Building in an Angry city.
- You cannot Construct a Building in a city if it would grow that city to a size larger than the total number of cities you have.
- Each city can only have one of each type of Building.
Example: You want to build an Academy in one of your cities. You already have the Writing Advance, so you may do so. You may construct it in city (a). You may not construct it in city (b) because it is Angry. You may not construct it in the city (c) because it is already size 4 and you only have 4 cities total. You may not construct it in city (d) because it already has an Academy.
Relevant Advances
- State Religion — Once per turn, when constructing a Temple, do not pay any Food.
Buildings
New cities are created using the Found Action ["Action: Found city", pg. 11]. The Settlement city-piece is the foundation of all cities and marks who owns each city.
Each city may also contain a number of Buildings, described below:
Academy (Requires Writing) Gain 2 Idea when Constructed.
Fortress (Requires Tactics) A Fortress' abilities can still be used even if there is no defending Army in the city. During the first Combat Round of a battle:
- +1 die for combat (no Army required)
- May cancel one Enemy hit
Port (Requires Fishing) A Port can only be Constructed in a city that is adjacent to a Sea space. The Port must be placed so that it extends into a Sea space.
The city can now Recruit Ships. When it does, the Ships are placed in the Sea space with the Port.
A city with a Port may collect 1 Gold or 1 Mood token from a single adjacent Sea space instead of using Fishing to get Food.
Temple (Requires Myths) Gain 1 Mood token or 1 Culture token when Constructed.
Market (Requires Bartering) (Civilizations expansion) Cities with a Market may Recruit Cavalry and Elephant Units.
Gain at most 1 Gold each time an opponent uses the Trade Routes Advance with 1 or more of your cities with a Market ["Trade Routes", pg. 31].
Note: Players do not have to collect from all of their Trade Routes each turn (i.e. a player may choose not to use a Trade Route that connects with your city with a Market).
Obelisk (Requires Arts) (Civilizations expansion) The Obelisk Building is immune to Influence Culture Actions, and remains in your color, even if the city is captured.
A captured city with an Obelisk in another color is considered to be under Cultural Influence by the Obelisk's owner.
Observatory (Requires Math) (Civilizations expansion) Get 1 Action card when Constructed.
Wonders For details on constructing Wonders, see ["Wonders", pg. 28].
Activate City: Recruit
When you choose this Action, Recruit a number of Units equal to the size of the city. If the city is Happy, 1 additional Unit may be Recruited. If the city is Angry, only 1 Unit can be Recruited, irrespective of its size.
You may Recruit any combination of Units.
Ships may only be Recruited in a city that has a Port.
(Civilizations expansion) Elephants and Cavalry may only be Recruited in a city that has a Market.
The Resource cost and any additional requirements to Recruit each Unit are shown in the chart on the next page.
New Land Units are placed in the same space as the city.
Ships are placed in the Sea space that the city's Port is in. If there is an enemy Ship there, a Naval battle occurs immediately ["Naval Combat", pg. 24].
If you Recruit a Unit type and have no more available (all of them are on the board), you may still Recruit such a Unit by moving one of your other Units of the same type and placing it in the city where you are Recruiting.
Example: You Recruit 1 Infantry and 1 Settler paying the cost of 1 Ore and 3 Food. You already have all 4 of your Settlers in play, so you move one of your Settlers to place it in the city where you just recruited.
Types of Units
There are three types of Units:
- Settlers can Found cities but cannot fight.
- Ships can transport Land Units and fight other Ships.
- Army Units can fight and capture cities.
The term "Land Unit" refers to any Unit that is not a Ship.
In the base game, Army Units only consist of Infantry.
(Civilizations expansion) The Civilization expansion adds three other types of Army Units: Cavalry, Elephants, and Leaders.
Army Stacking Limit
You may never have more than 4 Army Units in the same Land space (Army Units on Ships do not have a stacking limit but are limited to two Units per Ship). Ships and Settlers have no stacking limits.
| Unit | Cost and Requirements |
|---|---|
| Settler | 2 Food |
| Infantry | 1 Food, 1 Ore |
| Ship | 2 Wood — Can only be recruited in a city that has a Port. Must be placed in the Port's Sea space. |
| Cavalry (Civilizations expansion) | 1 Food, 1 Wood — Can only be recruited in a city that has a Market. |
| Elephant (Civilizations expansion) | 1 Food, 1 Food — Can only be recruited in a city that has a Market. |
| Leader (Civilizations expansion) | 1 Culture token, 1 Mood token |
Relevant Advances
- Sanitation — Each time you perform the Recruit Action, you can Recruit 1 Settler for 1 Mood token instead of the normal cost.
- Medicine — After you perform the Recruit Action, gain 1 Resource that you just spent.
- Draft — Each time you perform the Recruit Action, you can Recruit 1 Infantry for 1 Mood token instead of the normal cost.
- Nationalism — After Recruiting at least 1 Army Unit or Ship, gain 1 Mood token or 1 Culture token.
Leaders (Civilizations expansion)
Each Civilization has 3 Leaders that can be Recruited during the game. A Leader is a new type of Army Unit added by the expansion.
When Recruited, choose one of your available Leader cards and place it above your Civilization board. Place the Leader's Unit in the city where it was Recruited.
You can only have 1 Leader at a time. If you already have a Leader and Recruit a new one, the old Leader card is discarded, and the Unit is removed from the board before recruiting the new one. The discarded Leader card cannot be used again in this game.
Leader Abilities
Each Leader has two powerful abilities as listed on the Leader card. Unless specified, these abilities only affect the city the Leader is currently in, or a Land battle the Leader is participating in. Naval battles and ships are only affected if specified. Combat Value bonuses apply every combat round unless stated otherwise.
Example: "When she defends: She gets +2 Combat Value." means that when this Leader's Unit is present in a Land battle where the enemy attacked, she gets to add +2 Combat Value every combat round that she is part of the battle.
Discarding and Death
Leaders can die from combat or from certain Event cards or replaced if you Recruit a new Leader. When your Leader dies or is replaced, remove the Leader's Unit from the board. In addition, discard your Leader card from above your Civilization board and return it to the game box (or an opponent - see below). That Leader cannot be used again in this game.
If you lose all 3 Leaders, you cannot Recruit any more Leaders.
If you kill an enemy Leader in a Land or Sea battle, take the Leader card and place it in front of you facedown. It counts as 2 Victory Points.
Action: Move Units
When you perform this Action, Move up to 3 of your Land or Sea Units or groups of Units. A group is defined as 1 or more Units moving from the same starting space to the same destination space at the same time. You Move Units in any order you wish. Units in the same space do not have to Move to the same destination (or at the same time) but are regarded as two (or more) different groups if they don't.
If you Move a Unit into an unrevealed region, you must explore that region. See ["Exploration", pg. 20].
If you Move Units into a space with enemy Units or an enemy city, a battle must be resolved immediately before moving other Units ["Combat", pg. 22].
Remember, you may never have more than 4 Army Units in the same Land space (Army Units on Ships do not have a stacking limit but are limited to two Units per Ship). Ships and Settlers have no stacking limits.
Land Movement
Each Unit or group may be Moved one space per Move Action. However, you can select the Move Action more than once on your turn to Move the same Units more than once, with the following limitations:
- Battles: Units that have participated in a battle (including capturing a city) cannot be moved again the same turn.
- Mountains: Units that Move into a Mountain space cannot be moved again the same turn.
- Forests: Units that Move into a Forest space can be moved again, but cannot be moved into a battle for the remainder of the turn.
Important notes:
- You may not Move your Army Units until you have the Tactics Advance. You can still Recruit Army Units and fight if attacked.
- Settlers cannot Move into the same space as enemy Units or enemy cities unless they are part of a group with at least 1 Army Unit.
Relevant Advances
- Tactics — You may Move Army Units.
- Roads — When you Move a Unit or group to or from one of your cities: Pay 1 Food and 1 Ore to ignore Forest/Mountain terrain penalties and/or Move up to 2 spaces.
Ship Movement
A Ship or group of Ships can move from one Sea space to any other connected Sea space. Sea spaces are considered connected if they are in a contiguous group of other Sea spaces. Even though you can move as many spaces as you want, you must still trace the route one space at a time and are forced to stop and battle if you move into a Sea space with an enemy Ship.
Ships that battle other Ships cannot continue their movement or Move again during the same turn.
Example: You can Move your Ship as shown by the arrows.
Relevant Advances
Navigation — Your Ships can move around the board from one group of Sea spaces to the first available Sea space or group of Sea spaces in the sailed direction. A Ship may move through multiple Sea spaces in both the starting group and ending group of Sea spaces. If an enemy ship is blocking the only entrance to the next group of Sea spaces, you may end your move there and fight it.
Note that you cannot move past unrevealed Regions, but you can move into them as a method of exploring. See ["Exploring with Ships", pg. 21].
Example: You have the Navigation Advance. You can move counter clockwise to any of the Sea spaces to the north or move clockwise into the unrevealed Region (but not past it).
Transporting Units
Every Ship may transport 2 Land Units. When moving a Land Unit, you may move it onto a Ship in an adjacent Sea space, or, if it is already on a Ship, have it disembark to an adjacent Land space (triggering any terrain effects). You may also move Land Units and Ships during the same Move Action as long as you move no more than 3 different Units/groups in total and that each Unit/group only moves once per Action.
Land Units may still leave or enter Ships that have participated in a battle. Land Units that have participated in a battle may not move onto Ships as they cannot move again in the same turn.
Rule Explanation Tip: When explaining the game to new players, consider skipping over the full details of Ship movement until parts of the board with Sea spaces are revealed. Simply state that Ships can transport two Land Units each and that they can move along any connected Sea spaces. And with Navigation they can move around the board. Then, when enough of the board has been revealed, you can explain in more detail how Ships move.
Example: You want to Move an Infantry (a) onto a Ship (b), move the Ship, and then have the Infantry disembark (c). This would have to be done in 2 Move actions.
1st Move Action: You move the Infantry onto the Ship in an adjacent Sea space. Then you move the Ship (with the Infantry that is now being transported) to its destination. Having only moved two Units/groups (the Infantry and the Ship), you could still move a third Unit/group somewhere else on the board, but you could not disembark from the Ship, as that Infantry Unit already moved.
2nd Move action: One of the three moves of the second Move action is used to have the Infantry Unit disembark from the Ship. Now you still have two moves left which could be used on any other Units/groups on the board, including the Ship which could move back to pick up more Land Units.
Action: Increase Happiness
When you perform this Action, you can increase the Mood of one or more cities, by as many steps you want, as long as you have enough Mood tokens.
To increase the Mood of a city, you must pay a number of Mood tokens equal to the size of the city for each step. If the city becomes Happy indicate this by placing a spent token next to the city with its Happy side up.
Example: You have a size 2 Angry city. To increase its Mood to Neutral would require 2 Mood tokens. To make it Happy directly from an Angry state would cost a total of 4 Mood tokens (2 to make it Neutral and 2 more to make it Happy). This could be done with one Increase Happiness Action.
Relevant Advances
- Voting — Free Action: Pay 1 Mood token to perform the Increase Happiness Action.
- Rituals — When using Increase Happiness, any Resources can be used as Mood on a 1:1 rate.
- Circus & Sports — As an Action: Pay 1 or 2 Culture tokens to Increase the Mood of one city by that many steps.
City Moods
Cities can have three different Mood states:
Happy: Indicated by a Happy token near the Settlement piece. Happy cities count as being 1 size larger when Collecting Resources and Recruiting Units.
Neutral: Indicated by having no Happy/Angry tokens near them. All cities start Neutral when Founded.
Angry: Indicated by an Angry token near the Settlement piece. Angry cities are regarded as size 1 for Collecting and Recruiting. You cannot Construct new Buildings in Angry cities. Angry cities can only be activated once.
Rule Summary
- Increase the Mood of a city one step by paying a number of Mood tokens equal to the city's size.
- As long as you have enough Mood tokens you may, during one Action, Increase the Mood of as many cities as you want, by as many steps as you want.
Action: Influence Culture
When you perform this Action, you use one of your cities to Influence Culture in another city (or, in certain circumstances, itself). The target city must have at least 1 Building and be within range of your city. A city's range is equal to its size (not modified by Mood). For instance, a size 4 city can influence cities up to 4 spaces away.
Declare a target city and roll a die.
If you roll a 5 or 6, you are successful: exchange one of the city's Buildings with the same type of Building in your color. It does not matter which Building you exchange, as it only affects scoring. The Building still belongs to the city owner, and the piece itself still functions as normal in all respects, unless specifically stated otherwise (e.g. on an Objective card).
However, as long as the piece is your color, you—rather than the owner of the city—score the Victory Point for that Building at the end of the game.
Boosting your Influence Culture Action
You can boost your attempts at Influence Culture by spending Culture tokens. Each Culture token spent can be used to either:
- Increase the range by 1 space, or
- Add 1 to the die result after rolling.
Important notes:
- You can only Influence Culture on Buildings, not a Settlement or Wonders.
- You can only have one successful Influence Culture attempt per turn. You may use several Actions or abilities to get that one success.
- You may target your own cities to remove enemy Cultural Influence.
- An influenced city (i.e. one with an enemy Building) can only target itself and may not boost the roll.
- Influence Culture may cross Sea spaces, but not unrevealed Regions.
- You may target Buildings in Barbarian cities. (Barbarian cities can have Buildings if they used to be player cities before they were captured by Barbarians.)
- You may change Buildings that don't match the city owner's color (i.e. already influenced by another player).
Note that you only have five of each type of Building, so be careful not to Influence Culture with your last Building of a particular type if you are planning to construct that Building yourself.
Likewise, if you already have all 5 of a certain Building type on the board, you cannot target that Building type for Influence Culture, as you have none of that type left in your supply.
Example: You have a size 3 city within 4 spaces of an enemy city. The target city is a size 2 city and is a legal target. However, it is out of range, as your city only has a range of 3 spaces.
You spend 1 Culture token to extend your city's range from 3 to 4. You then roll a die and roll a 3.
You choose to spend 2 additional Culture tokens, adding 2 to your result, giving you the 5 needed for it to be successful. You now exchange one of the Buildings in the target city into a matching Building of your color.
Relevant Advances
- Arts — Once per turn, as a Free Action: Pay 1 Culture token to take an Influence Culture Action.
- Separation of Power — Opponents cannot boost Influence Culture range/rolls vs. your Happy cities.
- Totalitarianism — Opponents cannot boost Influence Culture range/rolls vs. your cities with Army Units.
- Devotion — Opponents cannot boost Influence Culture range/rolls vs. your cities with Temples.
- Conversion — You add +1 to your Influence Culture roll and a success gains you 1 Culture token.
Rule Summary
- Target a city (at least size 2) within range of one of your cities (range = your city's size).
- Roll a die — success on a 5 or 6.
- If successful: Exchange a Building (not the Settlement or Wonder piece) in the target city with a matching Building in your color.
Boosting your Influence Culture Action:
- Add +1 range for each Culture token you spend.
- Add +1 to your die roll for each Culture token you spend.
What is Cultural Influence?
Influencing another culture represents how a culture's customs, language, philosophy, religion, clothing, and architectural styles can spread to neighboring cultures, and be detected only centuries later. A city is said to be influenced or under Cultural Influence if it contains at least one Building in a different player color than the owner.
Status Phase
After three Rounds, the current Age ends with a Status Phase, consisting of 6 steps carried out in order. In turn order, all players complete the first step before moving on to the second step, and so on.
1. Complete Objectives
If you meet the requirements shown on any of your Objective cards (showing the text "Status Phase"), place them faceup in front of you. You can fulfill as many Objectives as you are able to, but the criteria for fulfilling more than one Objective with the same name must be different.
After Age VI or if a player has no cities, the game ends after this step of the Status Phase.
2. Free Advance
You receive one free Advance. This may result in you gaining Mood or Culture tokens as normal, and if the new Advance results in an Event, resolve it immediately.
3. Draw New Cards
Draw 1 Action card and 1 Objective card and add them to your hand. There is no limit on how many cards you may have in your hand.
4. Raze Size 1 City
You may raze one of your size 1 cities by removing it from the board and you gain 1 Gold in compensation. This can sometimes be useful if a city is blocking a larger city's access to Resources or if it is under threat and you are unable or unwilling to defend it.
5. Change Government Type
You may pay 1 Culture token and 1 Mood token to move all of your Advances from one Government category to another category that you meet the prerequisite for. The top Advance must always be chosen, but each other Advance can be any of your choice within that category.
Example: You currently have the Voting and Economic Liberty Advances from the Democracy category. You want to switch your Government type to Autocracy, so you move both cubes; one must be placed in Nationalism as it is the top Advance, but the second cube can go in any of the remaining three.
Changing to the Autocracy government type this way would still require you to have the Draft advance, which is the pre-requisite advance to Nationalism.
6. Determine First Player
The player with the highest combined total of Mood and Culture tokens decides who will be the first player for the next Round. In case of a tie, if the current first player is among the tied players, they get to decide who will start next Round. If the current first player is not among those tied, the first tied player to the left of the current first player gets to decide who will be first player.
Status Phase Tip: To ensure the game is played in a timely manner, players should consider which Objective cards they have completed and what free Advance to get prior to their turn.
Action Cards
You start the game with 1 Action card and get more during the game—most commonly during the Status Phase. They are kept secret from other players and can give you extra options or Actions when played. If you are ever told to draw an Action Card and there are no cards left to draw, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck to draw from.
Each Action card lists two separate effects. The top effect is used outside of combat and lists the conditions upon which it can be played. Some Action cards have text on them that includes "As an Action." This means that it costs an Action to do what the text says.
The bottom half is the card's combat effect which you can use in combat if you have the Tactics Advance.
After playing an Action card, it is discarded faceup to the discard pile. There is no limit to how many Action cards you can play for their non-combat effect (aside from the limits presented on the cards).
However, you may not play two cards with the same name as a result of the same trigger.
For example, you cannot play two "Teach us Now!" cards after capturing one city.
Objective Cards
Each player starts the game with 1 Objective card and receives additional ones during the game. Objective cards are kept hidden from the other players and show two Objectives on them.
The top one is usually related to development of your Civilization, while the bottom Objective is more oriented towards military goals.
Only one of the two Objectives on a single card can be completed, but regardless of which is completed, it is worth 2 Victory Points at the end of the game. When you complete an Objective, place it in front of you.
Some Objectives are completed during the first step of the Status Phase, while others are completed immediately after some specific criteria are fulfilled.
Multiples of the same Objective (Objectives with the same name) can never be completed at the same time with the same trigger.
So capturing one city would not allow you to complete two "Conqueror" Objectives but capturing two different cities would. You may, however, still complete two differently named Objectives by capturing a single city, provided you fulfill the criteria on both.
Exploration
At the start of the game, only the starting Regions are revealed. You reveal the other Regions by moving Units into them. While both Armies and Settlers can be used to explore a Region, only a Settler can Found a city. Ships can also explore unrevealed Regions, but with slightly different rules as explained below.
Exploring with Land Units
Regions are revealed as you Move your Units into them. First, note the space that your Units Moved to. Then, flip the Region over and place in accordance to the following rules:
- The Region must be placed so that it occupies the same area it did before being flipped (i.e. it can only be placed in one of two orientations).
- The space which was moved into may not be a Sea space.
- The Region must be placed so that a Sea space is placed adjacent to another Sea space (unless this conflicts with second rule).
- If Sea spaces cannot be placed adjacent to other Sea spaces, and the Region is on the edge of the board, place the Region so that a Sea space, if any, touches the edge of the board.
If, after following these rules, there are two possible legal ways the Region can be placed, you choose either orientation.
Above is what your immediate surroundings could look like at the start of a game. The following images show Regions that will be explored. It will be explained how the revealed Region should be placed. Unexplored Regions are identified by a paper texture.
Moving your Settler from your Starting Region, you explore Region (a). The only possible way to place this Region would be as shown (b), since rotating it differently would mean the Sea space is at the bottom where the Unit just entered. This is in violation of the second rule: Land Units may not Move into a Sea space.
The Settler cannot move again this turn since it Moved onto a Mountain space. It could, however, Found a city.
A few turns later, the Settler is now in the plains space of the previously revealed Region (c), and explores again. The new Region must be placed as shown (d), because as long as it does not violate the second rule, a Region with a Sea space must be placed so the Sea space connects with adjacent Sea spaces if possible.
Later, a new Settler Moves from the starting city towards the Region to the left (e).
In either orientation (f) or (g), the Settler does not move into a Sea space and both have the Sea space on the edge of the board.
As there are no other Sea spaces to connect to, the only remaining rule is that the Sea space must then touch the edge of the map, which it will regardless of how it is rotated. In this case, you may decide on the orientation of the Region.
Later, a Settler moves into region (h), which has only one orientation option available. If the Region was oriented the other way, the Settler would have walked into a Sea space.
Next, that Settler explores region (i). The only rule that applies to this region is that the Sea space must touch the edge of the map. The only option is to place it as shown (j).
Exploring with Ships
Ships may also be used to explore unrevealed Regions. Unlike Land exploration, it does not matter what exact space the unrevealed region you move a Ship into. Simply reveal a Region that a Ship can reach. If possible, place the Region so that its Sea spaces can be reached by the Ship without entering any other Regions.
Example: You explore the highlighted region with your Ship.
The Region could be placed in orientation (a) or (b). The Ship is then placed on the newly revealed Region on any of the two Sea spaces (since Ships can Move between all connected Sea spaces).
If that is not possible (for instance, if the Region has no Sea spaces), then place it in accordance with the normal rules for Region placement, and leave the Ship on the Sea space it was before exploration. The same rules apply when you use the Navigation Advance to move around the edge of the board.
Example: On your next Move Action, you move the Ship to Region (c) to explore it.
This Region has no Sea space, so you decide orientation (d) or (e).
Then you leave the Ship on the Sea space it started.
Combat
Land Combat
Battles typically occur during a Move Action when 1 or more Army Units moves into a space with 1 or more enemy Units or an enemy city. Battles are resolved immediately when they occur and must be completed before moving further Units/groups.
Battles are resolved by performing a number of Combat Rounds until either the attacker retreats or until either side (or both sides) have lost all their Army Units.
Each Combat Round consists of the following 5 steps:
1. Play Action Card
At the start of combat, if the attacker has the Tactics Advance, they may play 1 Action card facedown in front of them. Then, whether the attacker played a card or not, if the defender has the Tactics Advance, they may play 1 Action card facedown.
2. Reveal Action Card
Simultaneously reveal any played Action cards and read the effects aloud. Any effect that has the text "On reveal" is applied immediately, while other effects may take place later in the Combat Round. An Action card only affects the Combat Round it is played in and is discarded faceup to the discard pile after the Round.
Each combat effect has a title and shows one or more of the following: Army, Fortress, or Ship. This indicates which type of Unit (or Fortress) a player must have present in the battle to play the card.
3. Combat Roll
The central part of every Combat Round is the combat roll. Each player makes a combat roll by rolling a number of dice equal to the number of Army Units they have in the battle. Some Action cards also add to the total.
All die faces have a Clash icon representing a type of Army Unit. When these icons are rolled, the Clash ability of matching Unit in the Army must be activated. Ignore any Clash icons for Units you do not have in the battle.
The sum of the dice rolled is represented by a sword icon (Combat Value).
Each specific Unit can only have its Clash ability activated once per roll and each single icon only activates the ability of one Unit — not all matching Units.
| Unit | Clash Icon | Clash Ability |
|---|---|---|
| Infantry | Infantry icon | +1 Combat Value |
| Ship | None | None |
Example: Red and Blue are having a battle. Red rolls 3 dice for her 3 Infantry, getting the results shown. This gives a final Combat Value of 14: 12 for the sum of the dice, +2 for the two Infantry icons.
Blue rolls 2 dice for his Infantry, for a final Combat Value of 8: 7 for the sum of the dice, +1 for the Infantry icon.
(Civilizations expansion) Additional Clash abilities:
| Unit | Clash Icon | Clash Ability |
|---|---|---|
| Cavalry | Cavalry icon | +2 Combat Value |
| Elephant | Elephant icon | The value on the die does not add to your Combat Value, but you cancel an opponent's hit |
| Leader | Leader icon | Ignore the original roll and re-roll the die until you get a new result with a non-Leader Clash icon |
Examples with Expansion Units (Civilizations expansion)
Example 1: Purple has 4 Units in a battle: 2 Infantry, 1 Cavalry, and a Leader.
They roll 4 dice, getting the results shown. Although 2 Cavalry icons were rolled, purple only has 1 Cavalry Unit in the battle, so only one of the icons is activated, giving a +2 to Combat Value. The Elephant icon is ignored as purple doesn't have any Elephants in the battle.
The Leader die is rerolled, resulting in a 6, activating the Clash ability of one of the Infantry Units which adds a +1 Combat Value.
Purple's final Combat Value is 18.
Example 2: Yellow has 3 Units in a battle: 1 Infantry, 1 Leader, and 1 Elephant.
They roll 3 dice getting the results shown. The Elephant Clash icon activates ignoring the Combat Value of 2, but instead will cancel an opponent's hit in the next step. As yellow only has 1 Leader, only one Leader Clash icon activates, even though two were rolled.
One of the 1's is re-rolled and gets a 5. This activates the Clash ability of one of the Infantry Units and adds a +1 Combat Value.
Yellow's final Combat Value is 7 and also cancels one hit from their opponent.
4. Remove Casualties
Once the final Combat Values are determined, players determine how many hits they have scored. Divide the final Combat Value by 5 and round down to get the number of hits done to the enemy. For instance, rolling 14 would cause 2 hits.
For each hit scored, their opponent must remove any one of their Army Units, if able. Any cards or abilities that allow you to cancel hits takes place in this step, unless stated otherwise. Settlers are not Army Units and can not be taken as casualties.
However, when the last Army Unit of a player is removed in battle, any Settlers of their color in the space are also removed.
5. End of Battle Check
If one side has no Units remaining in the battle, they lose, and the side with remaining Units wins.
If both sides lose all their Units in the same Combat Round, combat ends with no winner or loser.
If one side only has a Fortress defending, they win if the attacker is eliminated in the first round. The Fortress effect only lasts one round. So if someone attacks an empty city with a Fortress and survives the first round, they capture the city.
If both sides have Units remaining, the attacker has the option to retreat.
If they do, combat ends (with no winner or loser) and the attacking Units return to the space they Moved from. All Units in the battle must retreat from the battle together and to the space they came from.
If the attacker does not retreat, a new Combat Round begins.
Rule Summary
Play Action cards: Attacker decides first, then defender. Need Tactics Advance.
Reveal Action cards: Reveal any played Action cards and carry out the effects that take place prior to the Combat Roll.
Combat Roll: Both players roll a number of dice equal to the number of Units they have. Sum the dice and apply any Clash abilities to find your Combat Value.
Divide this total by 5 (rounding down) to find the number of hits inflicted and remove Casualties.
End of Battle check: If both players have Units left, the attacker may retreat. If not, repeat this sequence.
Capturing Cities
A city is captured if Army Units are ever alone in an enemy city after a battle (i.e. moving into an undefended city or surviving against enemy Units and/or a Fortress). When this happens, do the following steps:
- Replace the owner's city-pieces (a) with matching pieces in your color (b). Buildings under Cultural Influence by another player are not replaced nor are any Wonders present in the city (c).
- Gain Gold equal to the size of the city. Gain 1 additional Gold if the city was Happy and gain only 1 Gold irrespective of the size of the city if it was Angry.
| Size | Neutral | Happy | Angry |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 Gold | 2 Gold | 1 Gold |
| 2 | 2 Gold | 3 Gold | 1 Gold |
| 3 | 3 Gold | 4 Gold | 1 Gold |
| 4 | 4 Gold | 5 Gold | 1 Gold |
| 5 | 5 Gold | 6 Gold | 1 Gold |
- The previous owner of the city gets to place a Settler in one of their other cities (d). If they have no other cities or no Settlers in their supply, they do not get a Settler.
- The city becomes Angry (e).
Note: You can use an ongoing effect of a Building in a city you capture (e.g. Port, Fortress, Market), even if you don't have the advance required to construct that Building.
Running out of City-pieces
If you capture a city containing city-pieces that you need to replace but you have no more available (i.e. all of them are already on the board), simply remove those pieces from the captured city and do not replace them. If it is the Settlement city-piece you are missing, the entire city is removed. For each city-piece (Settlement, Building, and Wonder) removed in this manner, you gain 1 Gold (irrespective of the Mood of the city, or if the city-piece was under Cultural Influence).
Settlers in Combat
Settlers cannot fight. If Settlers are ever in a space alone with an enemy Army Unit, a battle occurs in which any Settlers are defeated automatically (no cards are played and no dice are rolled). This means that the Army Units that eliminated the Settlers cannot move again that turn. Settlers together with friendly Army Units cannot be taken as casualties, and are eliminated if all other friendly Army Units are eliminated. Likewise, a Settler moving with Army Units also moves back to where it came from if the attacker retreats.
Relevant Advances
- Tactics — You may Move Army Units. You may play Action cards in a battle.
- Siegecraft — Cancel a Fortress's ability to add +1 die (pay 2 Gold), and/or to cancel a hit (pay 2 Ore).
- Steel Weapons — When a battle begins 1 Ore may be paid to get +2 Combat Value or +1 Combat Value against an enemy that also has Steel Weapons.
- Fanaticism — In battles in a city with a Temple, you get +2 Combat Value on the first combat roll. If you lose the battle, place 1 Infantry in one of your cities for free.
Naval Combat
A Naval battle occurs if you Move or Recruit Ships into a Sea space with at least 1 enemy Ship. Combat is resolved the same as Land combat, and Ships may also retreat and move back to the space from which they started their movement. They cannot retreat if they were Recruited into that space. Ships have no Clash ability.
Land Units transported by Ships play no role during Naval combat (except for a few Leader abilities). However, after the Naval battle you must check to see you have enough Ships to transport the Land Units in the space (2 Land Units per Ship). If not, you must remove Land Units until you do.
While a Ship cannot be Moved again after it has been in a battle, Units on board may still enter or leave the Ships during a Move Action. If a Unit disembarks into a space containing enemy Units, a Land battle occurs (as per normal rules).
Events
Events represent occurrences that can affect a Civilization and captivate historians and storytellers alike. Some Events are good, some are bad.
Whenever you gain an Advance, take a cube from the Event tracker on your Player board and place it next to the new Advance, gaining a Mood / Culture token if applicable. If your Event tracker is now empty, draw the top card of the Event deck and resolve it. Then, refill your Event tracker with 3 new cubes from your supply.
If you are ever told to draw an Event Card and there are no cards left to draw, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck to draw from.
To resolve an Event card, read out aloud its text and apply its effect. Most Events only affect the player who reveals the Event but some affect everyone. If an Event card forces all players to do something, this is done in clockwise order starting with the player who drew the Event card.
Unless you are told to keep the card it is discarded faceup after it has been resolved.
(Civilizations expansion) 20 new Event cards are added to the game which are shuffled into the Event deck during setup. They work just like Event cards in the base game but can feature new elements from the expansion.
For a Destroyed City?
Some Event cards such as "Earthquake" and "Volcano" can destroy cities. Players get Victory Points when this occurs. While this may seem strange at first, it serves both a balancing and thematic purpose. Imagine how such a cataclysmic Event will be discussed by historians, researched by archeologists, and continually capture the imagination of countless generations.
Event Icons
Some Event cards feature an icon in the top-left corner. These are special effects that are resolved immediately after revealing the card, before the rest of the text, and even if the main effect of the card does not occur until later in the game. Event icons only affect the player who drew the card. The various Event icons are explained below:
Gold Mine (Gain 2 Gold) You immediately gain 2 Gold.
Exhausted Land Place an Exhausted Land marker on an empty (no Units/cities), non-Barren Land space adjacent to one of your cities.
From now on, no Resources may be Collected from that space, and no cities may be Founded there (including Barbarian cities).
The Irrigation Advance has no effect on a space with this marker.
Barbarian Events
Barbarians are independent and game-controlled Armies that have Settlements, move around on the board, can attack you, and block Resource collection. Barbarians enter the game and activate primarily through Event cards, but some Action cards can also activate them. Barbarians are subject to the Army stacking limit.
(Civilizations expansion) 8 new Barbarian pieces are added to the game: 4 Cavalry and 4 Elephants. They have the same powers as the player versions.
See the following pages for more about interacting with Barbarians.
Barbarians Spawn
Perform these 2 steps in order:
- Place a Barbarian Settlement and a Barbarian Infantry on an empty, non-Barren Land space. The space must be exactly 2 Land spaces away from one of your cities and at least 2 spaces away from the rest of your cities. If that's not possible, it must be placed adjacent to your cities. In any case, the space must also be at least 2 spaces from all other players' Cities.
- Place a Barbarian Infantry Unit in a Barbarian city of your choice (this may include the newly placed Settlement).
(Civilizations expansion) Whenever you place a Barbarian Unit in a city (for whatever reason), you may place a Cavalry or Elephant if the city already has an Infantry.
If there is no eligible space for a Settlement, no Settlement is placed. If all Barbarian Units or Settlements are on the board already, none are placed.
Note: The Army stacking limit also applies to Barbarian Units.
Example: Red places a Barbarian Settlement and Barbarian Infantry that is 2 spaces away on the upper left (a).
Then Red must add an Infantry to an existing Barbarian city (b), (c), or (d).
Barbarians Move
Perform these 3 steps in order:
-
Check to see if there are any Barbarian Armies within 2 spaces of your cities. If there are none, stop resolving these steps and instead carry out only the first step of the Barbarian Spawn icon.
-
Move all Barbarian Armies within 2 Land spaces of your cities 1 space towards your nearest city (counting the shortest distance in Land spaces, and not through unrevealed Regions).
If a Barbarian Army moves into a city, Army, or Settler, resolve a battle immediately.
You decide the order of movement, and if there is more than one city equally close, you choose which of those cities the Barbarians move towards. (The Army does not split up.) Likewise, if a Barbarian Army has two spaces it could move to that brings it 1 space closer to your city, you choose which space it moves to.
-
Place 1 Barbarian Infantry in all Barbarian cities within two spaces of your cities.
Note: The Army stacking limit also applies to Barbarian Units.
Example: All Barbarian Armies within 2 spaces of Red's cities move 1 space towards them.
Then a Barbarian Infantry is placed in all Barbarian cities within 2 spaces.
Barbarian Battles
A battle occurs whenever a Barbarian Army ends up in the same space as any player's Units or cities, or if a player's Units end up in the same space as a Barbarian Army or city. An opposing player controls the Barbarian in the battle but may not use Action cards or retreat on their behalf. Barbarian Units have Clash abilities corresponding to their type.
Barbarians Capturing Cities
If a Barbarian Unit ends up alone in a player's city after a battle, the city is captured and becomes a Barbarian city:
- Replace the current Settlement (a) with a Barbarian Settlement (b). Any Buildings in the city stay in their current colors (and are regarded as being under Cultural Influence).
- The player who lost the city gets a Settler in a city of their choice (c).
- The city becomes Angry (d). Barbarians are not affected by the Angry city.
Note: If Barbarians conquer a city with a Fortress, they may use the Fortress if a player later attacks it.
Defeating Barbarians
You gain 1 Gold when you win a battle against a group of 1 or more Barbarian Units, whether you attacked them, or vice-versa.
You gain 1 Gold when you capture a Barbarian city regardless of its size (in addition to the Gold for defeating any defending Barbarian units).
When you do, replace the Settlement piece with one of your color. It is now your city.
Any Buildings there (if it used to be a player's city) stay in their current color. Then make the city Angry, if it wasn't already.
Pirates Spawn and Raid (Civilizations expansion)
Perform these 2 steps in order:
-
Place 2 Pirate Ships on Sea spaces without any player Ships. If possible, one of the Pirate Ships must be placed adjacent to one of your cities. You may place both Pirate Ships in the same Sea space.
If the supply doesn't have enough Pirate Ships for you to place, you must first remove enough from anywhere on the map so that you have 2 to place. You may place them back from where you took them from, if the space is applicable.
-
Every player who has at least one city adjacent to at least one Pirate Ship must lose either 1 Resource, 1 Mood token, or 1 Culture token. If a player cannot pay, they must reduce the Mood of one of their cities adjacent to a Pirate if possible (unless all are already angry).
Pirate Ships also have lasting in-game effects:
- Pirate Ships block the collection of Resources from the Sea spaces they are in and all adjacent Sea spaces.
- Pirate Ships block Trade Routes starting from, or going through, the Sea spaces they are in and all adjacent Sea spaces ["Trade Routes", pg. 31].
- Player Ships may not pass through spaces with Pirate Ships, and must stop moving when entering those spaces and fight a Naval battle ["Naval Combat", pg. 24].
Attacking Pirates (Civilizations expansion)
Moving or Recruiting your Ships into a space with Pirate Ships starts Naval combat. Another player rolls the dice for the Pirate Ships, but cannot play Action cards for them.
After a battle, for every Pirate Ship you eliminated, you gain 1 Gold and then your choice of 1 Mood token or 1 Culture token (regardless of who wins the battle).
Wonders
Each Wonder in the game is represented by a unique city-piece and a matching card. Constructed Wonders are worth Victory Points at the end of the game.
You draw a Wonder card into your hand when you get the Engineering and Monuments Advances.
Wonders are Constructed using the Engineering Advance by activating a Happy city, choosing a Wonder card from your hand, and paying its cost in Resources and Culture. All Wonders show a prerequisite Advance that you must have before the Wonder can be Constructed.
A city can have more than one Wonder.
When Constructed, the Wonder card is placed in front of you, and the matching Wonder city-piece is added to the activated city. Any special powers of the Wonder are now active.
Note: Wonders are not Buildings, but they are city-pieces. And as such, they add to the size of a city and are subject to the rule that no cities can grow to a size larger than the total number of cities you have.
Destroying and Conquering Wonders
Unless stated otherwise, when a city with a Wonder is destroyed, you lose the Wonder (and its Victory Points). Remove the Wonder card from the game.
If your city with a Wonder is captured by another player, that player gets the Wonder. They place the card in front of them and can now use its powers. However, you place a cube from your supply on the Wonder card to indicate that you were the player who originally Constructed it. If it's a Barbarian Army that captures it, just set the card aside with your cube on it.
At the end of the game, the Victory Points are split evenly between the current owner (no matter how many times the city changed owners) and the original builder of the Wonder: 2 Victory Points each.
If the original builder of the Wonder reconquers the city, they will gain the full Victory Points for the Wonder themselves.
Great Arena
This Wonder allows you to spend Culture tokens as Mood tokens and vice versa—except when spending Mood tokens to Construct a Wonder. When you get Mood or Culture you still get the token specified.
But when spending, discarding, or otherwise using the tokens, they are interchangeable.
Secondly, after a combat roll, you may spend 1 Mood token or 1 Culture token to add +1 Combat Value. You may do this after totaling your dice. You may do this once per land battle.
Great Gardens
The city with this Wonder may Collect any type of resource from Plains spaces—including Ideas and Gold.
Secondly, enemy player Units that move into a Plains space cannot move to attack the city with this Wonder on that same turn.
This is similar to how the Forest terrain penalty works, except only for the city with this Wonder, and the Roads advance cannot be used to ignore the effect. Your Units and Barbarians are unaffected.
If Barbarians capture a city with the Great Gardens, its power applies to any player moving to recapture the city.
Great Library
On each of your turns, you may declare one non-Government advance on the Player Board that you don't own and use its power as if you own it until the end of your turn.
It's treated as if you bought the advance earlier in the game, so ignore any one-time effects that would occur immediately upon getting the advance such as gaining cards or tokens.
You do not have to declare it at the beginning of the turn, but simply before using an advance you don't have. You can choose any advance on the Player Board even if you don't have the top advance in the category.
(Civilizations expansion) This power cannot be used on or give access to any Civilization advances.
Great Lighthouse
Whenever you activate the city with this Wonder you may take a Ship from your supply and place it for free in any Sea space with no Enemy ship (if you have no Ship in your supply, no Ship is placed).
The Ship itself is not regarded as being recruited so if you activate the city by Recruiting, the number of Units you recruit or the size of the city has no effect on getting the free Ship.
Secondly, during the Status Phase, the owner of the Lighthouse always decides who becomes the First Player. This means it is no longer the player with the most Mood tokens and Culture tokens.
Great Mausoleum
Whenever you draw an Event card or Action card you may either do so as normal or choose to draw the top card from the relevant discard pile.
Since discards are faceup, this will allow you to know exactly what card you will draw. If you choose to draw an Event from the discard pile, you still resolve the Event icon and text as normal.
Once you have Constructed this Wonder your Action cards and Event cards are discarded to the bottom of the relevant discard piles once resolved. This means you generally cannot play a card and then draw it again using the power of this Wonder.
Great Pyramid
This Wonder is worth 5 Victory Points and not 4 Victory Points like the others.
Additionally, you keep all the 5 Victory Points (and the card) even if the city with the Great Pyramids is captured by an enemy. No split points.
Thirdly, if you are in a tie for most Victory Points at the end of the game, you win.
Great Statue
Immediately after Constructing this Wonder: Draw an Objective Card.
Secondly, once per turn, you may discard an Objective card from your hand to take an extra action.
Great Wall
After having Constructed this Wonder, all enemies have -2 Combat Value the first combat round when attacking any of your Happy cities.
Secondly, you automatically defeat any Barbarian armies that attack your cities. No rolls are made and no cards are played (but it still counts as a battle).
As per normal rules you get 1 Gold for defeating a Barbarian Army.
Appendix
Advances
Agriculture
Irrigation You can Collect Food from Barren spaces. These spaces are still considered to be Barren for all other purposes (no Founding of cities, no placement of Barbarians, etc). You ignore "Famine" Event cards.
Husbandry During a Collect Resources Action, you may collect from a Land space that is 2 Land spaces away, rather than 1. If you have the Roads Advance you may collect from two Land spaces that are 2 Land spaces away. This Advance can only be used once per turn.
Construction
Engineering When you get this Advance, draw the top card from the Wonder deck and put it in your hand. You may also use this Advance as an Action to construct a Wonder: Activate a Happy city and Construct a Wonder there. A city can have multiple Wonders. See ["Wonders", pg. 28].
Sanitation When Recruiting, you may spend 1 Mood token to pay for 1 Settler. You can do this in addition to buying other Units using Resources. You cannot buy multiple Settlers with multiple Mood tokens during the same Recruit Action.
Sanitation can be combined with Draft during the same Recruit action.
You ignore the effects from the "Plague" and "Epidemic" Event cards.
Roads When moving Land Units to or from your cities, you may pay 1 Food and 1 Ore to allow that Unit to both ignore the terrain penalties from Land spaces and Move up to 2 spaces. You must pay for each Unit or group that takes advantage of this ability.
Example: You have two Settlers and two Infantry in the same city.
You take a Move action and move 1 Settler 1 space. You do not use the Roads advance for that move, so no resources are spent.
You then pay 1 Food and 1 Ore to move the other Settler two spaces.
Finally you pay another 1 Ore and 1 Food to activate the Roads advance to allow the 2 Infantry to move two spaces across the Mountain and into a Forest. As the terrain has no effect, the group could be moved again and battle as part of a new Move Action.
If a group or Unit moves two spaces, the stacking limit must still be observed for each space Moved separately, if you move through your other Units.
You cannot explore unrevealed Regions using Roads, nor can you move across Sea spaces. You may attack cities using Roads (if moving from one of your cities), but you would retreat only 1 space to the last space you moved from. Roads cannot be used to move Units that have been part of a battle.
You cannot combine Roads with embarking or disembarking from Ships.
Maritime
Warships You may cancel a hit in the first Combat Round of any Naval battle. And also in a Land battle where your Armies leave your Ships and move directly into a battle on an adjacent space.
Navigation Your Ships may Move around the board to the nearest Sea spaces in the direction Moved. For a visual example of Ship movement done with Navigation, see ["Ship Movement", pg. 14].
Education
Free Education After you buy an Advance by paying for it with at least 1 Gold or 1 Idea, you may pay an extra 1 Idea to gain 1 Mood token. You cannot use this power when buying Free Education itself with at least 1 Gold or 1 Idea.
Philosophy Gain 1 Idea when getting this Advance. Also, from now on, gain 1 Idea whenever you get any Science Advances. You do not gain Idea for previously acquired Science Advances.
Warfare
Siegecraft When attacking a city with a Fortress, prior to any use of cards or rolling of dice, you declare if you wish to use the Siegecraft Advance. If you do, pay 2 Wood to cancel the Fortress' ability to add +1 die and/or pay 2 Ore to ignore its ability to cancel a hit.
Steel Weapons Immediately before a Land battle starts, you may pay 1 Ore to get +2 Combat Value in every Combat Round against an enemy that does not have the Steel Weapons advance, but only +1 Combat Value against an enemy that does have it (regardless if they use it or not this battle).
Steel Weapons can be used to get +2 Combat Value against Barbarian Armies since they don't have the Steel Weapons advance.
If two players in a battle both have Steel Weapons, the attacker decides first to either pay to use Steel Weapons or declare they will not. The defender must then decide the same after which the attacker cannot change their mind.
Note: If you have the Metallurgy Advance you do not pay 1 Ore to activate Steel Weapons against enemies without Steel Weapons. You still pay to use it against enemies with Steel Weapons.
Draft When Recruiting, you may spend 1 Mood token to pay for 1 Infantry Army Unit. You can do this in addition to buying other Units using Resources. You cannot buy multiple Army Units with multiple Mood tokens during the same Recruit Action.
Draft can be combined with Sanitation during the same Recruit action.
Spirituality
Myths Some Event cards force you to reduce the Mood of 1 or more cities (such as "Famine", "Flood", and "Earthquake"). With this Advance, for each city, you may pay 1 Mood token to avoid reducing that city's Mood. This Advance affects both Event cards that ask you to reduce Mood by one step, and those cards that reduce Mood directly to Angry (only costs 1 Mood token even if it would be reduced from Happy to Angry).
Rituals When you perform the Increase Happiness Action you may spend any Resources as a substitute for Mood tokens. This is done at a 1:1 ratio. For instance, if you have a size 3 city, you can increase its Mood with either 3 Mood tokens, or spend 1-3 Resources instead of Mood tokens. Thus, you could pay with 1 Mood token, 1 Food, and 1 Idea Resource.
Economics
Trade Routes At the beginning of your turn, you gain 1 Food for every trade route you can make, to a maximum of 4. A trade route is made between one of your Settlers or Ships and a non-Angry enemy player city within 2 spaces (without counting through unrevealed Regions). Each Settler or Ship can only be paired with one enemy player city. Likewise, each enemy player city must be paired with a different Settler or Ship. In other words, to gain X Food you must have at least X Units (Settlers or Ships), each paired with X different enemy cities.
Example: Here, the red Ships and Settlers paired with blue cities (A with A, B with B, C with C). Note that it is ok that one of the Settlers is on a Ship and that the Settler to the far left has no (unpaired) city within 2 spaces that it can pair up with.
Taxation As an Action, you can spend a Mood token to gain a number of Food, Ore, or Wood (your choice) equal to the number of cities you have. You can do this once per turn, and none of the cities activate.
You may gain different resources.
Culture
Circus & Sports As an Action, you may pay 1 Culture token to increase the Mood of one city by one step — regardless of how large the city is. You can also instead pay 2 Culture tokens to increase the Mood by two steps (i.e. from Angry to Neutral and then Neutral to Happy). Unlike the Increase Happiness Action, this Advance only allows you to increase the Mood of one city. You can, however, use multiple Actions to increase the Mood of multiple cities.
Monuments When you get this Advance, you immediately draw a card from the Wonder deck. The Wonder on this card can be Constructed later using the Engineering advance. Secondly, all your cities with Wonders are immune to further enemy Influence Culture attempts.
Science
Medicine After a Recruit Action, you may get 1 spent Resource back. So if you Recruit two Infantry and pay 2 Food and 2 Ore, you can then get back 1 Food or Ore. You must have the required amount of Resources needed for the recruitment. In other words if you only have 1 Food you cannot Recruit a Settler even if a Settler ends up only costing you 1 Food due to Medicine. You would have to have 2 Food, recruit it, and then get back a Resource.
Metallurgy During any Collect Action where you collect at least 2 Ore, you may choose to change 1 of that Ore into 1 Gold. Also, if you have the Steel Weapons Advance, you no longer have to pay 1 Ore to activate it against enemies without Steel Weapons.
Democracy
Civil Liberties As an Action, you can gain 3 Mood tokens. However, using the Draft Advance to buy Infantry Units for 1 Mood token costs you 2 Mood tokens instead.
Autocracy
Forced Labor You may pay 1 Mood token to have all your Angry cities act as Neutral this turn. By doing so you can Collect Resources, Recruit Units, and Construct Buildings as if the city is Neutral. Angry cities may still only be activated once.
Theocracy
Dogma Whenever you Construct a new Temple, either through the Construct Action or through playing of cards, you may immediately get a Theocracy Advance for free, marking it with a cube from your Event tracker as normal.
You are now limited to a maximum of 2 Ideas. If you have more than 2 Ideas when getting this Advance, you must immediately reduce down to 2.
Note: Dogma Advance does not apply when you conquer a city with a Temple.
Conversion You add +1 to your Influence Culture roll—so rolling a 4 would become a 5 and thus a success. Additionally, you gain 1 Culture token when you make a successful Influence Culture attempt.
Fanaticism During a battle in a city with a Temple, whether you are the attacker or defender, you add +2 Combat Value to your first combat roll.
If you lose the battle, you get 1 free Infantry Unit after the battle and place it in one of your cities. (If you have no cities, or no Infantry in your supply, you do not get the Unit).
Civilization Advances (Civilizations expansion)
Each Civilization has its own Civilization Advance category with four unique Advances that only they can get. These Advances work a little differently from the other Advances. Rather than getting them directly, you get them immediately when you obtain the associated Advance listed next to each Civilization Advance. For example when the Aztec player gets the Tactics Advance, they also get the Captives Advance from their Civilization category.
The cubes for the Civilization Advances are taken from your supply and not from your Event tracker.
Unlike all other Advance categories, you do not have to get the top Advance first. You simply get the Civilization Advances in the order you get the associated Advances. They are still regarded as Advances for scoring.
Aztecs
Captives (Tactics) When you win a Land battle, you may place any of the defeated opponent's Army Units (except a Leader) on this Advance, up to a maximum of 4. Each Captive is worth ½ Victory Point at the end of the game, or they can be used by the Human Sacrifice Advance (and a few Leaders) for other purposes.
Tribute Empire (Any Government Advance) Your cities can Collect resources from spaces with enemy cities within 2 spaces including from Barbarian cities. The resources you get match the space the cities are on, and the Mood of these cities has no effect on your collection.
If you Collect from a Barbarian city's space and you have the Captives advance you may instead choose to remove a Barbarian Army unit from the space and keep it as a Captive (see the Captives advance above).
Human Sacrifice (Rituals) After drawing an Event, you may remove a Captive from your Civilization board (return it to its owner's supply) to completely cancel the drawn card (including its Event icon) and draw a new one. You can continue doing this until you have no more Captives remaining at which point you must keep the Event Card you draw.
Additionally, you may freely remove one or more Captives to use each as 1 Mood token or 1 Culture token any time you wish.
Babylonia
Canals (Engineering) When any of your cities uses the Collect Resource Action and collects only 1 Food (but any number of other Resources), gain 1 extra Food (for a total of 2 Food gained). All Food collected counts, including that which is collected through cards like "Mass Collection" and "Focused Collection" as they affect the Collect Action directly. The extra Food is a bonus and is not included in the limit of Resources you can collect based on your city size. This Advance can be used more than once per turn.
Nebuchadnezzar II (Leader): Great Gardens When you gain a Wonder card, you must gain the Great Gardens (unless it has already been Constructed by someone). If another player holds the card, they must give it to you and draw a replacement Wonder card for themselves. Otherwise, if it's still in the deck or discard, you must take it from there (reshuffling the Wonder deck if it was taken from there). If the Great Gardens was revealed on the table through the Envoys Meet event, then take it and reveal a new Wonder card if possible.
Also when this Leader is active, you may Construct any Wonder in his city as a Free Action using the Engineering Advance. If it's the Great Gardens and in his city, then it also costs 2 Culture tokens less.
Carthage
Hegemony (Cartography) As an Action, one of your Ships may be used to Found a city on a Land space directly adjacent to it. Remove the Ship from the board and place a Settlement on the Land space. Normal rules apply (the space must not be Barren, Exhausted, nor have other cities or enemies on it).
You may place any Land Units transported in the same Sea space as the Ship onto the newly Founded city. However, afterwards the Units may not Move this turn. You can also let the Units stay in the Sea space if you have other Ships there to transport them. If there are Land Units left in the Sea space that can't be transported, they are removed.
Pirate Ships controlled by Carthage with Pirate Allies may also be used.
Pirate Allies (Navigation) Your Ships may move through or share spaces with Pirate Ships without starting a battle. When your Ships Move (or are Recruited) into a space with Pirate Ships, you may choose to either share the space, or attack the Pirate Ships. If you attack, resolve the Naval battle as normal.
Your Land Units may Move onto Pirate Ships.
As long as one of your Units shares a space with a Pirate Ship, the Pirate Ship counts as one of your Units. This means that:
- They may be moved like any of your Units—as long as a Unit in your player color continues to share a space with them while moving.
- They are not affected by Pirate icons on Event cards or other abilities referring to Pirate Ships.
- If Carthage controls all 4 Pirate Ships, then the Pirate Event has no effect.
- They are counted as your Units if an Event card asks you to remove Units (unless stated otherwise on the card).
- They can be used for the Trade Routes Advance.
- They award no Gold or Mood tokens to opponent players who defeat them.
- In combat, they count as your Ships for the entire battle. When both your normal Ships and Pirate Ships under your control participate together in a Naval battle, you must take Pirate ships as casualties first.
- Carthage has a stacking limit of 4 Ships in one space. Controlled Pirate Ships are in addition to your normal 4 Ships, so Carthage may control up to 8 Ships.
Note: If you already share a space with a Pirate Ship, you may attack it by using a Move Action on your Ship; you remain in the space and attack the Pirate Ship. Ships sharing a space with a Pirate Ship will also join in the attack if you move another of your Ships to the space to attack it.
Celts
Druidic Influence (Priesthood) You may target Barbarian Settlements with the Influence Culture Action. If you succeed, rather than replacing the Settlement piece with one in your color, you place a Mood token from the common supply underneath it. A settlement can only have a maximum of one Mood token underneath it. The Barbarian city is unaffected, but you score 1 Victory Point for each token remaining at the end of the game.
The token is removed if any player (including you) either captures the Settlement or converts it using the "Cultural Awe" card.
China
Rice Paddies (Irrigation) When you Collect Resources from a Plains space outside of your city that has at least 1 Settler on it, gain 1 extra Food. You only gain 1 extra Food per Plains space even if it has multiple Settlers. You can get at most 2 extra Food total i.e. from two different adjacent spaces with a Settler on it. The extra Food is a bonus and is not included in the limit of Resources you can collect based on your city size.
Sprawling (Husbandry) After a Recruit Action in which you Recruited at least 1 Settler, you may immediately take a Free Action to Move any or all of your Settlers currently in a city to an adjacent space.
- Roads can be used in accordance with its normal rules.
- Each Settler may move or not. You may move up to 3 units/groups (of Settlers) as normal.
- Moving the Settler you just recruited is optional; you may move just the other Settlers if you choose.
- Only your Settlers may move; other Units may not move with them as part of a group.
- Settlers gained through other means (such as after a city is captured, Migration, Population Boom) do not activate Sprawling.
Qin Shi Huang (Leader): Great Wall When you gain a Wonder card, you must gain the Great Wall (unless it has already been Constructed by someone). If another player holds the card, they must give it to you and draw a replacement Wonder card for themselves. Otherwise, if it's still in the deck or discard, you must take it from there (reshuffling the Wonder deck if it was taken from there). If the Great Wall was revealed on the table through the Envoys Meet event, then take it and reveal a new Wonder card if possible.
Also when this Leader is active, you may Construct any Wonder in his city as a Free Action using the Engineering Advance. If it's the Great Wall and in his city, then it also costs 2 Culture tokens less.
Egypt
Flood Plains (Irrigation) You may Found cities on Barren spaces. All of your cities may Collect Food or Wood from Barren spaces.
If a city on a Barren space is captured by another player, the city remains on the Barren space even though they don't have the Flood Plains Advance. The new owner will only be able to collect from the Barren space if they have Irrigation (and then only Food).
Embalming (Rituals) You gain 1 Mood token after fighting any battle, regardless of whether you won or lost. If you already have more than 4 Mood tokens, you do not receive additional tokens from this Advance. Battles include being attacked by Barbarians, and those involving undefended cities or Settlers.
You also gain 1 Mood token when one of your Leaders dies or is discarded, regardless of how many Mood tokens you have.
Man God (Priesthood) Your Theocracy Advances gain the abilities of Autocracy as well. For example, if you have Dogma then you may also use Nationalism. If you have Devotion then you also benefit from Totalitarianism, and so on.
Even though you may use these Advances, you do not actually have them. No cubes are placed there (and no Victory Points are awarded for them at the end of the game).
Cleopatra (Leader): Beloved With Cleopatra as your Leader, once per turn as a Free Action, you may place 1 Culture token in the city she occupies. To attack any Egyptian city with a Culture token (regardless of whether or not Cleopatra is still there), an opponent must pay the same amount of Culture tokens to the common supply (not to the Egyptian player). The cost must be paid prior to Moving the attacking Units, and are spent whatever the outcome of the battle.
Barbarian attacks are not affected by the presence of Culture tokens. If Cleopatra dies or is replaced, all tokens are removed. If Egypt loses a city through an Event or other means (e.g. Volcano), all tokens are removed with the city as well.
Greece
Formal Training (Public Education) Gain 1 Idea whenever you Recruit Units in a city with an Academy. This only applies when activating a city to Recruit Units, including Ships. It does not work when getting Units from other game effects.
Hellenization (Arts) You may make Influence Culture attempts from any city that is under your Influence, i.e., that has a Building in your color.
As normal, the range of the attempt is equal to the size of the city and not just the number of city pieces you have influenced within that city.
Example: if you have influenced one Building in a size 3 city, then your Influence Culture range from that city would be 3.
Additionally, if you have the Arts Advance, you may pay 2 Mood tokens instead of 1 Culture token to use it. The Arts advance can still only be used once per turn, even though you have two ways of using it.
City States (Any Government Advance) When you activate a city a second time in a turn, you may select another city to be activated in its place. The original city still performs the Action, using its size and Mood but it is the other city which is considered activated. If the other city had already been activated this turn, its Mood would drop, as normal.
The city you activate in place of the original city must be of at least equal size at the time the original is activated. Therefore, it is allowed to have a size 2 city Construct and become size 3, and have another size 2 city be considered activated.
Also, the other city must be of at least the same Mood as the original city. i.e. If the original city is Happy, you cannot activate a Neutral or Angry city in its place, and if the original city is Neutral, you can't activate an Angry city.
Huns
Nomads (Storage) During a Move Action, you may move your non-Angry cities of size 1 as if they were Units. They may move by themselves or with groups of other Units. If Moved alone, they use up one of the Move Action's 3 moves, just like a Unit. After moving, each Moved city gains 1 Resource matching the space to which it Moved. This is not considered a Collect Resources Action. It is possible to Move up to 3 cities and gain up to 3 Resources: one from each move.
- A Happy token moves along with the city.
- Terrain rules apply: cities that move into a Mountain space cannot be moved again that turn.
- Cities may not use the Roads Advance or move with a group that uses Roads.
- Cities may never move to the same space as another city.
- Cities do not count toward any Unit stacking limit.
- A city can move to an Exhausted or Barren space but never gets a Resource for moving there, even with the Irrigation Advance. If the city later then Constructs and adds a Building to the city, it will remain on the Exhausted or Barren space.
- Cities activate each time they move. Further moves (or any other activation) will reduce their Mood as normal.
- Units in a city do not have to move along with a city that moves.
Hunnic Tribes (Any Government Advance) If you draw an Event card that causes Barbarians to Move, you may decide the direction that each Unit or group moves in. Groups of Barbarian Units may not be split up: If a group of Units moves, all Units in the group move to the same space.
You must pay either 1 Gold or 1 Culture token to use this power regardless of how many Barbarian Armies you decide to control the movement of.
India
Proselytism (State Religion) Your Settlers may make Influence Culture attempts against enemy cities. Their base range is 2 but it can be boosted by Culture tokens as normal, or by other Settlers in the same space. Each additional Settler will add 1 to the range. Settlers in cities boost the city's range in the same way.
For example, 3 Settlers in a single space would have a range of 4, and 3 Settlers in a size 2 city would have a range of 5. All other rules, such as one Influence Culture success per turn, still apply.
Japan
Pottery (Storage) When one of your cities collects at least 3 Food with a single Collect Action, you gain 1 Culture token. Cards like "Mass Collection" and "Focused Collection" may be used to gain the Culture token as they affect the Collect Action directly.
Subterfuge (Tactics) When another player plays an Action card for its non-combat effect, you may discard 1 Action card from your hand to cancel its effect. You must have a city or Army Unit within 2 spaces of any Units or city of that player to do this.
You must declare this immediately after the other player has announced which card they are playing, but before seeing exactly how the card's effect is resolved. If the effect targets another player, you may wait until you know who is targeted.
The canceled card is discarded as if unplayed. If the card has any cost to play, such as an Action or Culture tokens, that cost is not paid.
As a courtesy, players should pause after announcing playing of an Action card to give you a chance to use this Advance.
Note: "Great People" Event cards that are kept in hand as Action Cards can also be canceled with this ability. Likewise they can also be discarded by you to cancel other cards with this ability.
Shogunate (Any Government Advance) Any Action Card or Event Card played "As an Action" may be played as a Free Action instead.
When using the Draft Advance you may pay 1 Mood token to draw an Action card instead of using it to Recruit an Infantry.
If you use this Advance and only draw a card and not Recruit any other Units, it does not activate the Nationalism Advance (as you did not Recruit an Army or a Ship).
Maya
Ballcourts (Circus & Sports) When you Collect Resources or Recruit Units, you may pay 1 Mood token to treat the city as 1 size larger, allowing you to Collect 1 more Resource or Recruit 1 more Unit (of course still paying its cost).
Additionally, once per turn, you may buy a Spirituality Advance at a discount of 1 Food.
Calendar (Astronomy) As a Free Action, you may look at the top Event card. You may then pay 1 Culture token to place it at the bottom of the deck. You may do this as long as you have Culture tokens to spend. If you have no Culture tokens, you may still look at the top card.
Note: If getting Astronomy (and therefore also getting Calendar) triggers an Event, you cannot use Calendar to look at the Event card before drawing it; you have to complete the Advance Action first before you can take the Free Action allowed by this Advance.
Persia
Zoroastrianism (Priesthood) When using the Influence Culture Action, your cities may target an enemy non-Leader Army Unit (including Barbarians) that is outside of a city and on a land space. The target unit must be of a type that you have available in your supply. Boosting the range and die result work as normal. If successful, change the Unit into one of your own Army Units of the same type. If there are other enemy Units in the same space, a battle immediately occurs between your new Unit and the enemy Units. Unprotected Settlers are automatically defeated in battle as normal.
As per normal Influence Culture rules, you are only allowed one successful attempt per turn. If you succeed, you would not be able to make any more attempts on either a Building or another Unit this turn.
Phoenicia
Cedars and Dyes (Trade Routes) Your Ships can form trade routes with enemy coastal cities that are up to 3 spaces away. Also, your cities with Ports can now establish a trade route by themselves (no Settler/Ship needed), but only with enemy coastal cities that are up to 3 spaces away. You are still limited to a total of four trade routes.
Rome
Imperial Roads (Roads) When using Roads (paying 1 Ore and 1 Food), you may move your Units/groups up to 4 spaces if they start and end on one of your cities. Just like when using Roads in general you must pay 1 Ore and 1 Food for every Unit/group that uses the advance.
Vikings
Shipcraft (Fishing) When you buy the Navigation Advance, you do not pay the Food cost.
During Move Actions, your Ships may convert to Infantry or Settlers, and your Infantry and Settlers may convert into Ships, by moving into an appropriate adjacent space.
Ships that move from a Sea space to an adjacent Land space, may each be exchanged into a Settler or, providing you have Tactics, into an Infantry Unit. The Move must be made starting from a Sea space adjacent to a Land space; moving along several connected Sea spaces and then converting is not possible in one Action. The space Moved to must be clear of enemy Units / cities but moving into your own city or into a space with your own Units is allowed.
If any Land Units are aboard the Ship, they may move with it as it converts, but stacking limits must be adhered to. They may alternatively stay in the Sea space if you have other Ships there to hold them.
Likewise, Settlers and Infantry may Move into an adjacent Sea space and be exchanged into Ships. The Sea space may not contain any enemy Ships or Pirate Ships, but may contain your Ships.
It is also possible to move a group of Settlers or Infantry into a Sea space, exchange only one or some, and let the others board the new Ships during the same move.
- Converted Units are still considered to be the same Unit; a new Move Action is needed to move them again. For example, after a Ship moves to Land and becomes a Settler, the Settler cannot be moved as part of the same Action. A new Move Action is required.
- Converted Units are still considered to be the same Unit with regards to terrain effects. For example, a Ship that converts to an Infantry as it moves to a Mountain space may not move again that turn. Similarly, a group of Infantry that has entered a Forest space on a previous Move Action and then moved to convert into Ships is still affected by the Forest. Thus, they may not move to attack for the rest of the turn—either as Ships or, if converted back in a subsequent Move, as Infantry.
- This Advance cannot be combined with the Roads Advance in any way.
- It is possible to convert a Settler to a Ship with one Move and then convert the Ship to an Infantry with a second Move action.
- You cannot convert to or from Infantry without having the Tactics Advance, since converting Units is part of a Move Action.
- Units that explore new Regions are not allowed to convert during the exploring Move.
Runestones (Rituals) After any battle where you lose 2 or more Army Units, you may take one of your unused Obelisk city pieces, and place it in front of you as if it were a completed Objective. For the remainder of the game it counts as a 1 Victory Point Objective, and may not be built in any of your cities.
Variants
Events
If you find the random nature of the Events too much, there are two different variants that can be used:
No Events: Draw Event cards, but only resolve the effect of the Event icons.
Optional Events: Before you draw an Event card, you must decide and announce whether you want to resolve the card as normal, or only resolve the effect of the Event icons.
Shorter Game
For a shorter game that lasts 4 Ages, do the following:
- Each player starts with 2 Settlers.
- During the Free Advance part of the Status Phase, each player gets 2 Advances instead of 1. Players get their first Advance in turn order, then continue to their second Advance, also in turn order. The second Free Advance cube comes from the player's supply not the Event tracker.
- The game ends at the end of Age IV.
Variable End Game
To introduce some uncertainty about when the game ends, use the reverse side of the Round Track depicting 7 Ages. Choose one of the following options when using this variant:
Roll to End: On the spaces used to mark the last 5 Rounds you will see red numbers. The first player about to start such a Round, rolls a die and if the die result is within the depicted range, the game ends immediately with a final Status Phase (consisting only of Completing Objectives).
A Wonderful Ending: The game ends if a player constructs a Wonder during one of the last 5 Rounds of the game (those with red numbers). Once the Wonder is built, finish the current Round and then the game ends immediately with a final Status Phase (consisting only of Completing Objectives).
Random Leaders
When you Recruit a Leader, instead of choosing which Leader to Recruit, randomly draw from your remaining Leaders. This makes the choice of getting a Leader slightly less strategic, but also introduces some excitement and a need to think on your feet. It also prevents players from always choosing the same Leader.
Open Wonders
This variant mirrors the 1st edition rules where Wonders were open to all players who had the Engineering Advance. Due to the extra information load, this variant is not recommended for new players.
Whenever a player is prompted to draw a Wonder they do not draw it into their hand, but instead place the drawn Wonder on the table. Any revealed Wonder can be Constructed by any player who has Engineering and lives up to the requirements and costs of the Wonder they wish to Construct.
So whenever Constructing a Wonder the players check to see which Wonders are available and then choose which they wish to Construct. When Constructed, they take the card and place it in front of them as normal.
Alternate History
What if Alexander the Great led Persia against Caesar's army of Japanese warriors? Let's find out.
In Setup, shuffle all Leaders together into one deck and deal 3 to each player: These are the Leaders that players can play during the game.
This variant can be combined with the Random Leaders variant.
Event Icons
Event icons are resolved before the Event card text:
Gold Mine You immediately gain 2 Gold.
Exhausted Place an Exhausted Land marker on an empty (no Units/cities), non-Barren Land space adjacent to one of your cities. No Resources may be Collected from that space, and no cities may be Founded there (including Barbarian cities).
Barbarians Spawn
- Place a Barbarian Settlement and a Barbarian Infantry on an empty, non-Barren Land space. The space must be 2 Land spaces (or if that's not possible, 1 space) from your cities and at least 2 spaces from other players' cities.
- Place a Barbarian Infantry Unit in a Barbarian city of your choice (this may be the newly placed Settlement).
- (Civilizations expansion) Barbarian Cavalry or Elephant may be placed if city already has Barbarian Infantry.
Barbarians Move
- If there are no Barbarian Armies within 2 spaces of your cities, carry out the first step of the Barbarians Spawn icon and nothing more.
- Move all Barbarian Armies within 2 Land spaces of your cities 1 space towards your nearest city (counting revealed Land spaces). If a Barbarian Army moves into a space with player Units or a city, resolve battle immediately.
- Place 1 Barbarian Infantry in all Barbarian cities within 2 spaces of your cities.
Pirates Spawn and Raid (Civilizations expansion)
- Place 2 Pirate Ships on Sea spaces without player Ships. If possible, one must be placed adjacent to one of your cities. Both may be placed in the same Sea space. If there are not enough Pirate Ships in the supply, you must remove Pirate Ships from the board to use.
- Every player who has at least one city adjacent to at least one Pirate Ship must lose either 1 Resource, 1 Mood token, or 1 Culture token. If a player can't pay, they must reduce the Mood of one of their cities adjacent to a Pirate if possible.
Barbarian Effects
- Barbarians block Collecting in their space and battle players in their space.
- Gain 1 Gold for defeating a Barbarian Army (plus 1 Gold if you capture their city).
Pirate Effects (Civilizations expansion)
- Pirate Ships block Collecting and Trade Routes within adjacent Sea spaces.
- Player Ships can't move through Pirate Ships but may enter and battle.
- Gain 1 Gold and 1 (Mood token or Culture token) for every Pirate Ship eliminated (win or lose).
Capturing Cities
- Replace the owner's city-pieces with matching pieces in attacker's color. Buildings that have been influenced by other players are not replaced. Barbarian attackers only replace the Settlement piece as all Buildings are regarded as being influenced. (If the attacker has run out of a certain city-piece then remove it and they gain +1 Gold compensation.)
- Attacker receives Gold equal to city's size (+1 if Happy and only 1 if Angry.)
- If previous owner was a player, they get a Settler in a city of their choice.
- The city becomes Angry.
Glossary of Terms and Icons
As an Action: This refers to an Action that you can take, from an Advance or card, that is one of the 3 Main Actions you take on your turn.
Army: Any single Army Unit or group of Army Units in the same space. This includes Barbarian Units. Army Units are Infantry Units in the base game, but the Civilization expansion adds Cavalry, Elephants, and Leaders.
Battle: Whenever an Army enters a space with an enemy Unit (including Settlers) or a city (including undefended cities), a battle takes place. If there is any opposition, the battle is resolved through Combat Rounds.
Buildings: City-pieces which are added to the Settlements as they grow in size. Neither Settlements nor Wonders are Buildings.
Capture: A city is captured when an attacking Army is alone in the same space as an enemy city. The city now belongs to the attacker.
Clash ability: Army Units have a Clash ability, which is activated automatically during combat when a die shows a Clash icon matching the type of Army Unit.
City: A Settlement and optionally Buildings / Wonders, belonging to a player or Barbarian. A Coastal city means a city adjacent to a Sea space.
City-piece: Any of the pieces that make up a city. This includes the Settlement, any Buildings, and any Wonder added as part of the city.
Enemy: Any Unit or city not belonging to you.
Free Action: An Action that can be taken before or after a player's Main Action on their turn. Free Actions do not count towards the usual 3 Main Actions a player has every turn. Unless otherwise stated, all rules, restrictions, and Resource costs still apply to Free Actions (e.g. a city activates if you Collect via a Free Action).
Land Unit: Any Unit (Army or Settler) that moves on Land spaces (all types of spaces excluding Sea spaces).
Region: The game board is made up of Regions. Regions can be either revealed (showing terrain) or unexplored (facedown).
Spaces: Each revealed Region is divided into four spaces. Each space has a terrain type which produces a Resource. Sometimes you may be asked to count spaces between Units or cities. When doing so you may count through enemy cities, Armies, and Sea spaces, but you may not count across unexplored Regions.
Wonder: A special city-piece that is added to cities through the Engineering Advance. Wonders are represented by both a golden miniature and a card with information.
Icon key: Food Resource, Ore Resource, Wood Resource, Idea Resource, Gold Resource, Culture Token, Mood Token or City Mood, Victory Point, Combat Value, Once per turn, Leader Clash Ability, Elephant Clash Ability, Cavalry Clash Ability, Infantry Clash Ability, Wonder, Angry city, Happy city, Neutral city, Exhausted Land, Barbarian, Pirate, Civilizations Expansion.
Game Design: Christian Marcussen
Graphic Design: Richard Dadisman, Daniel Solis
Illustrations: Gong Studios, Michael Komarck, Nakarin Sukontakorn, Shutterstock
Rulebook editing: Paul Grogan and the Gaming Rules! team
Game Testing: George Orthwein, Daniel Petersson, Ulrika Johansson, Adrian Macea, Tor Gjerde, Stephen Williams, Nathanael Brouhard, Simon Wilks
Additional Testing: Ryan Hill, Justin Stoner, Jill Woodruff, Tore Schade Svenningsson, Kristoffer Fiskvik, Ole Kristian Bjorøy, Brian Mandalis, Wade Duym, Aaron Belmer, Jason Nachtrab
Special thanks: George Orthwein