Our game is a strategy board game in which two to four players act as the leaders of history’s most memorable civilizations. Over the course of the game, they will expand their domains, gain new technologies, and build many of humanity’s greatest wonders. In the end, one civilization will rise above all others to leave its indelible mark upon history.

Playing the game

Our game is played over a series of turns. As the players take turns, they use their cards to build their civilizations from single cities to sprawling empires filled with wonders and technology. Players continue to take turns until the game ends. A player wins the game by completing one agenda on each victory card. Additionally, world events occur periodically that affect the map and all of the players, such as barbarian attacks. Before each of the first player’s turns (excluding the first turn).

The priority row

A player’s turn revolves around the concept of the priority row, which is the row of five cards below his or her priority bar. The priority row represents a nation’s various pursuits, such as scientific advancements, cultural developments, and military production. Each priority row has five slots, one for each card. The cards in a player’s priority row shift to different slots as the player takes turns. A card generally shifts toward the fifth slot until it is used, which is when it moves back to the first slot. From there, it will slowly shift toward the fifth slot again. This process represents the investment of time; a card resolved in the fifth slot has a greater impact than a card resolved in the first slot. A key strategy in the game is knowing when to resolve a card in a low slot for its immediate effect and when to wait to resolve a card for its maximum effect.

The player turn

A player’s turn consists of three steps:

Choose a Card: The player chooses one of the five cards in his or her priority row.
Resolve the Card: The player resolves the chosen card’s effect
Reset the Card: The player picks up the chosen card, shifts all cards in lower slots to the right by one slot, and then places the chosen card in the first slot (automatically done).

After the player resets the chosen card, the turn ends and the next player takes the next turn.

Key concepts

Spaces and terrain

Each hex on a map tile is a space. Spaces on the map have a terrain represented by art. The five basic types of terrain each correspond to a slot on the priority bar: grassland (1), hills (2), forest (3), desert (4), and mountains (5). A terrain’s slot number is its priority. Terrain affects many aspects of the game. In general, terrain that corresponds to a higher slot is more difficult to expand into and more difficult to conquer. The sixth terrain type, water, does not appear on the priority bar. Water has a priority of one, but players generally cannot interact with water unless a card specifically allows them to do so. When a space appears to have more than one terrain, its terrain is the type that covers the most area in the space.

Resources and natural wonders

Resources and natural wonders power the creation of amazing world wonders. There are four types of resources: antiquity, stone, oil, diamond. Players can collect these resources from the map and spend them when building world wonders. When a player spends a resource, it is returned it to the supply. A natural wonder can be spent as a resource of the type shown on it. However, when a natural wonder token is spent, it is not returned to the supply. The natural wonder an be spent again during future turns, but it cannot be spent more than once per turn. Spaces with natural wonder do not have a terrain type, but the terrain priority of all natural wonder spaces is five.

Cities and mature cities

Cities are the focal points around which empires are built. They allow players to extend into new areas of the map. Mature cities are fully developed cities that contribute to the well-being of a player’s civilization. They periodically generate boxes (which are described later) and act as new starting points for caravans. A city is mature when each space adjacent to it either contains a friendly pawn or is a water space. Cities on the edge of the map can mature faster because they have fewer adjacent spaces.

Priority cards

There are five types of priority cards. A priority card’s type is indicated by an icon in the upper-left corner. Each player’s priority row contains one card of each type. During the game, players acquire advanced versions of their starting priority cards, which have a greater impact on the game. An advanced card is resolved using the same rules as the starting card of that type, but it may have an additional effect (e.g., allowing caravans to cross water). The following sections describe the rules for each type of priority card.

Culture

Culture priority cards allow players to place pawns, which expands territory and claims resources. The card’s priority row slot determines which types of terrain the player can place pawns on. The player has to place a pawn on a space adjacent to a friendly city. If that space contains a resource or natural wonder, that resource or natural wonder is earned by the player.

The player must note the following rules:

The player cannot place the pawn on a water space or on any space whose terrain corresponds to a higher priority row slot than the culture card’s slot. All natural wonders are treated as having a terrain priority of five.
The space cannot contain a barbarian, city, city-state, or pawn.
The pawn is first placed unreinforced

Science

The science priority card advances a player’s tech wheel, allowing the player to discover new technologies. The card’s priority row slot determines how much the wheel advances. Each priority card has a tech level, and some spaces on the tech wheel are paired with a tech level: When the wheel’s pointer advances to (or passes) a tech level space, the player may gain a new priority card. He or she can choose any card from his or her priority card deck whose tech level exactly matches the tech level reached on the wheel. The chosen card replaces the card of the same type in his or her priority row.

Economy

Economy priority cards allow a player to interact with city-states and rival cities by moving caravans. The card’s priority row slot determines which terrain types the caravans can move into. Each player starts the game with one caravan. During the game, a player may gain better economy cards that increase the number of caravans he or she can use. A caravan can move out of its player’s capital city or mature cities as though it was already in that city’s space. If a caravan does not reach a city-state or rival city in a single turn, it remains on the board and can be moved again the next time the player resolves the economy card.

The player must note the following rules:

The player cannot place or move a caravan onto a water space or any space whose terrain corresponds to a higher priority row slot than the economy card’s slot.
The space cannot contain a barbarian.
The player cannot move more than one caravan to the same city or city-state during the same turn. When a player moves a caravan to a city-state or rival city, he or she resolves the following steps according to the destination:

The caravan get back to the economy card.
The player gains two boxes.

a. City-State: The boxes are placed on the card in his or her priority row that shares that city-state’s type.

b. Rival City: The boxes are placed on cards in his or her priority row, distributed as desired.
The player may take one diplomacy card.

a. City-State: The player cannot take that card if he or she already has a copy of it.

b. Rival City: The player chooses one of that rival player’s available diplomacy cards. If the player already has one of the rival player’s diplomacy cards, he or she must return it before taking another card from the rival player.

Industry

The industry priority card allows a player to build either a new city or a world wonder. If building a city, the card’s priority row slot determines which types of terrain the player can consider. If building a world wonder, the priority row slot contributes toward the cost of that wonder.

Building Cities: To build a new city, the player takes one of his or her unused cities and places it on an empty space within the number of spaces indicated on the industry priority card, counting from any friendly space. The player must note the following rules:

The player cannot build on a space that contains any component other than a caravan or a friendly control token. If built on a caravan, the components share the space; if built on a friendly control token, the token is removed from the map and returned to its player.
The player cannot build adjacent to a city-state or city.
The player cannot build on or count through a water space or any space whose terrain corresponds to a higher priority row slot than the industry card’s slot.
The player cannot count through a rival space or a barbarian token.

Building World Wonders: World wonders grant powerful abilities to the players who control them. A wonder’s cost is the number printed in the lower-left corner of the wonder card. Resources that a player can spend toward that cost are displayed in the lower-right corner. To build a wonder, the player chooses one of the faceup wonder cards and pays its cost in production, which is the sum of:

The number of the industry card’s diffiuclty row slot.
Two production for each eligible resource the player spends.
One production for each boxes the player spends from the industry card. If the player’s production equals or exceeds the wonder’s cost, the wonder is built. The player places the matching wonder under a friendly city that does not already have a wonder under it. A player cannot build a wonder if all of his or her cities already have a wonder under it.

Military

Military priority cards allow a player to either reinforce defenses or perform attacks. The priority row slot affects how many pawns can be reinforced, or it affects the strength of each attack.

Reinforcing Pawns: Reinforced pawns are powerful defensive tools that are useful for protecting valuable territory and cities that house world wonders. To reinforce pawns, the player chooses a number of his or her pawns up to the number of the military card’s slot. Reinforced pawns offer some protection against barbarians. When a barbarian moves into a space that contains a reinforced pawns, the barbarian returns to the space it moved from and the pawn get back to its unreinforced side. When a player is defending, he or she must determine the combat value of the defending component. A reinforced pawn increases its own combat value by one, and it also increases the combat value of each adjacent friendly city and pawn by one. These bonuses can stack to increase defense significantly—a city surrounded by several reinforced control tokens is difficult to conquer.

Performing Attacks: Players perform attacks to defeat barbarians, conquer city states, and capture rival territory. To perform an attack, the player chooses a space to attack from and a target that is within the number of spaces indicated on the military card, counting from a friendly space.

The player must note the following rules:

The defender (the target of the attack) must be a barbarian, city-state, rival city, or rival pawn.
The player cannot count through a water space, a rival space, or a barbarian token. The player can count through all other terrain regardless of the military card’s slot.
The player cannot attack from a space that he or she attacked and took control of this turn. After the defender is determined, the attacker and defender each roll one die to determine their combat values. The attacker’s combat value equals his or her die result plus the number of the military card’s slot. He or she also adds any other attack bonuses on his or her cards and leader sheet. The defender’s combat value equals his or her die result plus a bonus depending on what type of component is defending:
City-State: The bonus equals eight.
Barbarian: The bonus equals the priority of the defending space’s terrain.
Pawns: The bonus equals the priority of the defending space’s terrain, plus any defense bonuses on the defending player’s cards and leader sheet. The bonus also increases by one for each friendly reinforced pawnadjacent to the defender (including the defender itself if it is a reinforced pawns).
City: The bonus is the same as for a pawn, but the space’s terrain priority is doubled (e.g., mountain terrain adds a bonus of 10 instead of 5).

After determining combat values, the attacker can spend boxes from his or her military card. Then, the defender can spend boxes from his or her own military card. Each box a player spends increases his or her combat value by one. The player with the higher final combat value wins the attack (the defender wins ties). If the defender wins, nothing happens. If the attacker wins, he or she resolves an effect based on the target of the attack:

Barbarian: Places one box on any card in his or her priority row.

Pawn: The pawn get back to its unreinforced side. If the pawn is on a natural wonder space, the attacker wins that natural wonder's from the defending player.
Non-Capital City: The attacker replaces the city with one of his or her unused cities. If the space was a city-state’s space, the attacker conquers or liberates it.
Capital City: The attacker takes up to two boxes from the defending player’s priority cards and places them on his or her own priority cards, distributed as desired. If the attacker defeats a city that has a world wonder token, the token remains in the space and the attacker takes the matching wonder card. If the city was a capital city, the attacker must move the token to one of his or her cities. If the attacker cannot move the token because all of his or her cities already have a world wonder token, the attacker cannot take the wonder’s card or token.

Winning the game

Each victory card is divided into two agendas; the players’ objective is to complete one agenda on each victory card next to the map. Once an agenda is completed it cannot be "decompleted". At the start of the first player’s turn, if a player has completed one agenda on each victory card, that player wins. If there is a tie, the tied player with the most world wonders wins. If still tied, the tied player with the most friendly spaces wins.

Additional rules

This section provides players with the additional rules needed to play the game.

The event dial

The event dial governs effects that are not part of any player’s turn, such as barbarian activity. Before the first player starts each of his or her turns (excluding the first turn), the event dial’s rotates to the next section. If that section has an icon, an action is resolved. Then, the first player starts his or her turn. Each icon on the event dial is described below.

Barbarian Movement

Barbarians rove around the map, seeking caravans to plunder and cities to raze. When the pointer rotates to this icon, each barbarian on the map moves. The direction they all move is random. Each barbarian moves one space in the rolled direction. If a barbarian moves into a space that contains a player’s component, that player resolves the corresponding effect:

Caravan: The component is destroyed and returned to its player’s economy priority card.
Unreinforced Pawn or Non-Capital City: The component is destroyed and returned to its player.
Reinforced Pawn: The pawn gets back to its unreinforced side and the barbarian returns to the space it moved from.
Capital City: The player chooses and discards a total of two boxes from the cards in his or her priority row. If a barbarian moves into a water space, it continues to move in the rolled direction until it reaches a non-water space. If a barbarian would move off the edge of the map, it moves in the opposite direction instead.

Barbarian Spawning

Barbarians regularly respawn throughout the game. When the pointer rotates to this icon, each defeated barbarian is placed back on the map. Each barbarian displays a letter. When a barbarian token respawns, it is placed on the barbarian icon that displays the same letter. A barbarian respawns only if its matching space is empty or occupied by a caravan (the caravan is destroyed); otherwise, the barbarian remains off the map, awaiting the next opportunity to respawn.

Trade

Mature cities contribute to their civilizations in the form of boxes. When the pointer rotates to this icon, each player places boxes on the cards in his or her priority row, distributed as desired. The number of boxes that player places is equal to the number of mature cities he or she controls.

City-states

A city-state is a small, sovereign state that is neutral toward all players. City-states are valuable trading partners, rewarding players who send caravans to them. Each city-state has two diplomacy cards that share the city state’s name. When a player moves a caravan to a city-state, that player places two boxes on the card in his or her priority row that shares the city-state’s type. If the player does not already have that city-state’s card, he or she wins one of its cards. The player cannot take the city-state’s card from another player. The terrain of all city-states is grassland, but the defense bonus of all city-states is eight. A player cannot move more than one caravan into the same city or city-state each turn.

Conquering and Liberating City-States

Players can gain some of a city-state’s benefits by attacking it or by liberating it from another player. When a player attacks and conquers a city-state, that player places one of his or her unused cities in that space and places the city-state token on the card in his or her priority row that shares the city-state’s type. When a player resolves a priority card that has a city-state token on it, he or she can spend the city-state token as a box. The token remains on that priority card instead of returning to the supply, but it cannot be spent more than once per turn. If a player attacks and defeats a rival city on a conquered city-state, he or she may either conquer it or liberate it. If the player liberates it, he or she returns the city-state’s token to its space instead of placing a city. Then, the player flips that city-state’s cards faceup and takes one of them.

Diplomacy card

Diplomacy cards provide useful bonuses to players who send caravans to city-states and rival cities. Each player has a set of diplomacy cards corresponding to that player’s color, and each city-state has a pair of city-state diplomacy cards. A player gets no effect from his or her own diplomacy cards, but he or she can use the diplomacy cards he or she takes from city-states and other players. A player cannot have more than one diplomacy card from each city-state and each other player. If a player attacks a city-state or rival space, he or she must return any diplomacy cards he or she has taken from that city-state or player.

Boxes

Boxes enhance the effects of priority cards. Players gain boxes by sending caravans to city-states and rival cities and when the event dial’s pointer moves to the trade icon. When a player resolves a priority card, he or she may spend any number of boxes on that card. Each box spent produces the effect indicated on the bottom of that priority card:

Culture: One additional pawn may be placed.
Military: If attacking or defending, the player’s combat value increases by one during that attack.
Science: The tech wheel advances one extra space.
Industry: If building a wonder, the player’s production increases by one.
Economy: Each caravan may move one additional space.

A priority card cannot have more than three boxes on it. City-state tokens do not count against this limit.

World wonders

World wonders provide powerful, unique effects to the players that control them. There are four types of world wonders: cultural, economic, scientific, and militaristic. A wonder’s type is indicated on its card and token by both an icon and a color. Wonder type determines which deck a wonder belongs to. Players build world wonders by using an industry priority card. When a player builds a wonder he or she places the wonder’s token under a friendly city that does not already have a world wonder. A player controls a world wonder while its token is under a friendly city (or in rare cases, under a friendly control token). Another player can attack a rival space that has a world wonder token to take control of the wonder. If a barbarian destroys a city that has a world wonder, the world wonder token remains in that space and a player can gain control of it by placing a city or control token on it.

Rules

Our game is a strategy board game in which two to four players act as the leaders of history’s most memorable civilizations. Over the course of the game, they will expand their domains, gain new technologies, and build many of humanity’s greatest wonders. In the end, one civilization will rise above all others to leave its indelible mark upon history.

Playing the game

Our game is played over a series of turns. As the players take turns, they use their cards to build their civilizations from single cities to sprawling empires filled with wonders and technology. Players continue to take turns until the game ends. A player wins the game by completing one agenda on each victory card. Additionally, world events occur periodically that affect the map and all of the players, such as barbarian attacks. Before each of the first player’s turns (excluding the first turn).

The priority row

A player’s turn revolves around the concept of the priority row, which is the row of five cards below his or her priority bar. The priority row represents a nation’s various pursuits, such as scientific advancements, cultural developments, and military production. Each priority row has five slots, one for each card. The cards in a player’s priority row shift to different slots as the player takes turns. A card generally shifts toward the fifth slot until it is used, which is when it moves back to the first slot. From there, it will slowly shift toward the fifth slot again. This process represents the investment of time; a card resolved in the fifth slot has a greater impact than a card resolved in the first slot. A key strategy in the game is knowing when to resolve a card in a low slot for its immediate effect and when to wait to resolve a card for its maximum effect.

The player turn

A player’s turn consists of three steps:

Choose a Card: The player chooses one of the five cards in his or her priority row.
Resolve the Card: The player resolves the chosen card’s effect
Reset the Card: The player picks up the chosen card, shifts all cards in lower slots to the right by one slot, and then places the chosen card in the first slot (automatically done).

After the player resets the chosen card, the turn ends and the next player takes the next turn.

Key concepts

Spaces and terrain

Each hex on a map tile is a space. Spaces on the map have a terrain represented by art. The five basic types of terrain each correspond to a slot on the priority bar: grassland (1), hills (2), forest (3), desert (4), and mountains (5). A terrain’s slot number is its priority. Terrain affects many aspects of the game. In general, terrain that corresponds to a higher slot is more difficult to expand into and more difficult to conquer. The sixth terrain type, water, does not appear on the priority bar. Water has a priority of one, but players generally cannot interact with water unless a card specifically allows them to do so. When a space appears to have more than one terrain, its terrain is the type that covers the most area in the space.

Resources and natural wonders

Resources and natural wonders power the creation of amazing world wonders. There are four types of resources: antiquity, stone, oil, diamond. Players can collect these resources from the map and spend them when building world wonders. When a player spends a resource, it is returned it to the supply. A natural wonder can be spent as a resource of the type shown on it. However, when a natural wonder token is spent, it is not returned to the supply. The natural wonder an be spent again during future turns, but it cannot be spent more than once per turn. Spaces with natural wonder do not have a terrain type, but the terrain priority of all natural wonder spaces is five.

Cities and mature cities

Cities are the focal points around which empires are built. They allow players to extend into new areas of the map. Mature cities are fully developed cities that contribute to the well-being of a player’s civilization. They periodically generate boxes (which are described later) and act as new starting points for caravans. A city is mature when each space adjacent to it either contains a friendly pawn or is a water space. Cities on the edge of the map can mature faster because they have fewer adjacent spaces.

Priority cards

There are five types of priority cards. A priority card’s type is indicated by an icon in the upper-left corner. Each player’s priority row contains one card of each type. During the game, players acquire advanced versions of their starting priority cards, which have a greater impact on the game. An advanced card is resolved using the same rules as the starting card of that type, but it may have an additional effect (e.g., allowing caravans to cross water). The following sections describe the rules for each type of priority card.

Culture

Culture priority cards allow players to place pawns, which expands territory and claims resources. The card’s priority row slot determines which types of terrain the player can place pawns on. The player has to place a pawn on a space adjacent to a friendly city. If that space contains a resource or natural wonder, that resource or natural wonder is earned by the player.

The player must note the following rules:

The player cannot place the pawn on a water space or on any space whose terrain corresponds to a higher priority row slot than the culture card’s slot. All natural wonders are treated as having a terrain priority of five.
The space cannot contain a barbarian, city, city-state, or pawn.
The pawn is first placed unreinforced

Science

The science priority card advances a player’s tech wheel, allowing the player to discover new technologies. The card’s priority row slot determines how much the wheel advances. Each priority card has a tech level, and some spaces on the tech wheel are paired with a tech level: When the wheel’s pointer advances to (or passes) a tech level space, the player may gain a new priority card. He or she can choose any card from his or her priority card deck whose tech level exactly matches the tech level reached on the wheel. The chosen card replaces the card of the same type in his or her priority row.

Economy

Economy priority cards allow a player to interact with city-states and rival cities by moving caravans. The card’s priority row slot determines which terrain types the caravans can move into. Each player starts the game with one caravan. During the game, a player may gain better economy cards that increase the number of caravans he or she can use. A caravan can move out of its player’s capital city or mature cities as though it was already in that city’s space. If a caravan does not reach a city-state or rival city in a single turn, it remains on the board and can be moved again the next time the player resolves the economy card.

The player must note the following rules:

The player cannot place or move a caravan onto a water space or any space whose terrain corresponds to a higher priority row slot than the economy card’s slot.
The space cannot contain a barbarian.
The player cannot move more than one caravan to the same city or city-state during the same turn. When a player moves a caravan to a city-state or rival city, he or she resolves the following steps according to the destination:

The caravan get back to the economy card.
The player gains two boxes.

a. City-State: The boxes are placed on the card in his or her priority row that shares that city-state’s type.

b. Rival City: The boxes are placed on cards in his or her priority row, distributed as desired.
The player may take one diplomacy card.

a. City-State: The player cannot take that card if he or she already has a copy of it.

b. Rival City: The player chooses one of that rival player’s available diplomacy cards. If the player already has one of the rival player’s diplomacy cards, he or she must return it before taking another card from the rival player.

Industry

The industry priority card allows a player to build either a new city or a world wonder. If building a city, the card’s priority row slot determines which types of terrain the player can consider. If building a world wonder, the priority row slot contributes toward the cost of that wonder.

Building Cities: To build a new city, the player takes one of his or her unused cities and places it on an empty space within the number of spaces indicated on the industry priority card, counting from any friendly space. The player must note the following rules:

The player cannot build on a space that contains any component other than a caravan or a friendly control token. If built on a caravan, the components share the space; if built on a friendly control token, the token is removed from the map and returned to its player.
The player cannot build adjacent to a city-state or city.
The player cannot build on or count through a water space or any space whose terrain corresponds to a higher priority row slot than the industry card’s slot.
The player cannot count through a rival space or a barbarian token.

Building World Wonders: World wonders grant powerful abilities to the players who control them. A wonder’s cost is the number printed in the lower-left corner of the wonder card. Resources that a player can spend toward that cost are displayed in the lower-right corner. To build a wonder, the player chooses one of the faceup wonder cards and pays its cost in production, which is the sum of:

The number of the industry card’s diffiuclty row slot.
Two production for each eligible resource the player spends.
One production for each boxes the player spends from the industry card. If the player’s production equals or exceeds the wonder’s cost, the wonder is built. The player places the matching wonder under a friendly city that does not already have a wonder under it. A player cannot build a wonder if all of his or her cities already have a wonder under it.

Military

Military priority cards allow a player to either reinforce defenses or perform attacks. The priority row slot affects how many pawns can be reinforced, or it affects the strength of each attack.

Reinforcing Pawns: Reinforced pawns are powerful defensive tools that are useful for protecting valuable territory and cities that house world wonders. To reinforce pawns, the player chooses a number of his or her pawns up to the number of the military card’s slot. Reinforced pawns offer some protection against barbarians. When a barbarian moves into a space that contains a reinforced pawns, the barbarian returns to the space it moved from and the pawn get back to its unreinforced side. When a player is defending, he or she must determine the combat value of the defending component. A reinforced pawn increases its own combat value by one, and it also increases the combat value of each adjacent friendly city and pawn by one. These bonuses can stack to increase defense significantly—a city surrounded by several reinforced control tokens is difficult to conquer.

Performing Attacks: Players perform attacks to defeat barbarians, conquer city states, and capture rival territory. To perform an attack, the player chooses a space to attack from and a target that is within the number of spaces indicated on the military card, counting from a friendly space.

The player must note the following rules:

The defender (the target of the attack) must be a barbarian, city-state, rival city, or rival pawn.
The player cannot count through a water space, a rival space, or a barbarian token. The player can count through all other terrain regardless of the military card’s slot.
The player cannot attack from a space that he or she attacked and took control of this turn. After the defender is determined, the attacker and defender each roll one die to determine their combat values. The attacker’s combat value equals his or her die result plus the number of the military card’s slot. He or she also adds any other attack bonuses on his or her cards and leader sheet. The defender’s combat value equals his or her die result plus a bonus depending on what type of component is defending:
City-State: The bonus equals eight.
Barbarian: The bonus equals the priority of the defending space’s terrain.
Pawns: The bonus equals the priority of the defending space’s terrain, plus any defense bonuses on the defending player’s cards and leader sheet. The bonus also increases by one for each friendly reinforced pawnadjacent to the defender (including the defender itself if it is a reinforced pawns).
City: The bonus is the same as for a pawn, but the space’s terrain priority is doubled (e.g., mountain terrain adds a bonus of 10 instead of 5).

After determining combat values, the attacker can spend boxes from his or her military card. Then, the defender can spend boxes from his or her own military card. Each box a player spends increases his or her combat value by one. The player with the higher final combat value wins the attack (the defender wins ties). If the defender wins, nothing happens. If the attacker wins, he or she resolves an effect based on the target of the attack:

Barbarian: Places one box on any card in his or her priority row.

Pawn: The pawn get back to its unreinforced side. If the pawn is on a natural wonder space, the attacker wins that natural wonder's from the defending player.
Non-Capital City: The attacker replaces the city with one of his or her unused cities. If the space was a city-state’s space, the attacker conquers or liberates it.
Capital City: The attacker takes up to two boxes from the defending player’s priority cards and places them on his or her own priority cards, distributed as desired. If the attacker defeats a city that has a world wonder token, the token remains in the space and the attacker takes the matching wonder card. If the city was a capital city, the attacker must move the token to one of his or her cities. If the attacker cannot move the token because all of his or her cities already have a world wonder token, the attacker cannot take the wonder’s card or token.

Winning the game

Each victory card is divided into two agendas; the players’ objective is to complete one agenda on each victory card next to the map. Once an agenda is completed it cannot be "decompleted". At the start of the first player’s turn, if a player has completed one agenda on each victory card, that player wins. If there is a tie, the tied player with the most world wonders wins. If still tied, the tied player with the most friendly spaces wins.

Additional rules

This section provides players with the additional rules needed to play the game.

The event dial

The event dial governs effects that are not part of any player’s turn, such as barbarian activity. Before the first player starts each of his or her turns (excluding the first turn), the event dial’s rotates to the next section. If that section has an icon, an action is resolved. Then, the first player starts his or her turn. Each icon on the event dial is described below.

Barbarian Movement

Barbarians rove around the map, seeking caravans to plunder and cities to raze. When the pointer rotates to this icon, each barbarian on the map moves. The direction they all move is random. Each barbarian moves one space in the rolled direction. If a barbarian moves into a space that contains a player’s component, that player resolves the corresponding effect:

Caravan: The component is destroyed and returned to its player’s economy priority card.
Unreinforced Pawn or Non-Capital City: The component is destroyed and returned to its player.
Reinforced Pawn: The pawn gets back to its unreinforced side and the barbarian returns to the space it moved from.
Capital City: The player chooses and discards a total of two boxes from the cards in his or her priority row. If a barbarian moves into a water space, it continues to move in the rolled direction until it reaches a non-water space. If a barbarian would move off the edge of the map, it moves in the opposite direction instead.

Barbarian Spawning

Barbarians regularly respawn throughout the game. When the pointer rotates to this icon, each defeated barbarian is placed back on the map. Each barbarian displays a letter. When a barbarian token respawns, it is placed on the barbarian icon that displays the same letter. A barbarian respawns only if its matching space is empty or occupied by a caravan (the caravan is destroyed); otherwise, the barbarian remains off the map, awaiting the next opportunity to respawn.

Trade

Mature cities contribute to their civilizations in the form of boxes. When the pointer rotates to this icon, each player places boxes on the cards in his or her priority row, distributed as desired. The number of boxes that player places is equal to the number of mature cities he or she controls.

City-states

A city-state is a small, sovereign state that is neutral toward all players. City-states are valuable trading partners, rewarding players who send caravans to them. Each city-state has two diplomacy cards that share the city state’s name. When a player moves a caravan to a city-state, that player places two boxes on the card in his or her priority row that shares the city-state’s type. If the player does not already have that city-state’s card, he or she wins one of its cards. The player cannot take the city-state’s card from another player. The terrain of all city-states is grassland, but the defense bonus of all city-states is eight. A player cannot move more than one caravan into the same city or city-state each turn.

Conquering and Liberating City-States

Players can gain some of a city-state’s benefits by attacking it or by liberating it from another player. When a player attacks and conquers a city-state, that player places one of his or her unused cities in that space and places the city-state token on the card in his or her priority row that shares the city-state’s type. When a player resolves a priority card that has a city-state token on it, he or she can spend the city-state token as a box. The token remains on that priority card instead of returning to the supply, but it cannot be spent more than once per turn. If a player attacks and defeats a rival city on a conquered city-state, he or she may either conquer it or liberate it. If the player liberates it, he or she returns the city-state’s token to its space instead of placing a city. Then, the player flips that city-state’s cards faceup and takes one of them.

Diplomacy card

Diplomacy cards provide useful bonuses to players who send caravans to city-states and rival cities. Each player has a set of diplomacy cards corresponding to that player’s color, and each city-state has a pair of city-state diplomacy cards. A player gets no effect from his or her own diplomacy cards, but he or she can use the diplomacy cards he or she takes from city-states and other players. A player cannot have more than one diplomacy card from each city-state and each other player. If a player attacks a city-state or rival space, he or she must return any diplomacy cards he or she has taken from that city-state or player.

Boxes

Boxes enhance the effects of priority cards. Players gain boxes by sending caravans to city-states and rival cities and when the event dial’s pointer moves to the trade icon. When a player resolves a priority card, he or she may spend any number of boxes on that card. Each box spent produces the effect indicated on the bottom of that priority card:

Culture: One additional pawn may be placed.
Military: If attacking or defending, the player’s combat value increases by one during that attack.
Science: The tech wheel advances one extra space.
Industry: If building a wonder, the player’s production increases by one.
Economy: Each caravan may move one additional space.

A priority card cannot have more than three boxes on it. City-state tokens do not count against this limit.

World wonders

World wonders provide powerful, unique effects to the players that control them. There are four types of world wonders: cultural, economic, scientific, and militaristic. A wonder’s type is indicated on its card and token by both an icon and a color. Wonder type determines which deck a wonder belongs to. Players build world wonders by using an industry priority card. When a player builds a wonder he or she places the wonder’s token under a friendly city that does not already have a world wonder. A player controls a world wonder while its token is under a friendly city (or in rare cases, under a friendly control token). Another player can attack a rival space that has a world wonder token to take control of the wonder. If a barbarian destroys a city that has a world wonder, the world wonder token remains in that space and a player can gain control of it by placing a city or control token on it.