Through the Ages - Tips & Strategies

As a new player to the game, I find that storing the extra cards that get added for additional players away from the main decks is a must. It is too easy to forget and mix them in when they are not needed.

After completing a two-player game, we excitedly began shuffling for another engagement. Halfway into our exciting sequel, we realized that we forgot to remove the “extra” cards which had been on the bottom of the tray holding the decks. This completely changed the course of history!

I recommend a small ziplock bag for each set of additional player cards. Just keep them somewhere obvious so they don’t get left out!

Tactics that require fewer units, such as Fighting Band and Medieval Army, provide flexibility to a player who is hoping to colonize more often. This balances the generally lower strength bonus they provide.

The smaller armies enable a player to bid more exactly for colonies because they offer more options for sacrificing units to achieve specific strengths. This results in being able to send some units to the new colony while still maintaining decent strength to deter subsequent aggressions, while a player with large armies would be forced into an all-or-nothing decision. There is also a better chance of having extra units not currently in an army which can easily be used to colonize during other players turns with minimal penalty, since immediate replacement is not possible. Sacrificed armies are also easier to rebuild to regain their strength bonus.

It’s important to build a balanced civilization, but also to focus on a strength. Balance will give you defense and let you progress, but focus will give you victory.

Make sure your food production keeps up, or you will not be able to get more population for your buildings or military.

Make sure your resource production keeps up, or your won’t be able to add building, complete wonders, or add military.

Make sure your science production is decent, or you will never get your improvements and governments out, and you may end up with a full hand when you really need that card available.

Make sure not to neglect Happiness and culture production, or you will have to deal with civil unrest, and be out of the game before you start.

Make sure your military strength doesn’t lag too far behind, or you will be ripe for your enemies to attack, and you will make it far too easy for them to colonize. If you have a decent military, then the threat of reprisals makes aggression risky, and bidding gets much more interesting for the colonies.

Colonies can make or break you! Some of them add resources or food, science, military strength, or culture. They can swing the game.

After a bunch of games with my friends and on the lower ratings of boardgaming-online, I noticed that whenever I get an military advantage, my opponent will stop playing events cards so as not to trigger the events that I events that I have played. While I admit that this is the normal psychology, I would advise you to play you events none the less and just deal with the consequence. there’s a few reason behind this:

1) even if you are not triggering the event this turn, your opponent is going to trigger it on his turn. In doing so, he is adding YET another strength based event that will hurt you again in the future. At the same time he gets the culture from it.

in essence, you are only delaying the bad stuff for one extra turn.

2) on the other hand, if you seed some good/neutral events or colonies, you are going to make future events not going to hurt you any further. you do this at the cost of triggering the bad event one turn earlier, but for your trouble, you are given more breathing space in the future AND culture for it.

3) by having your own events, you can better plan in the future. in TTA, only the military deck is unknown, all other cards are public knowledge. having information about future events can drastically change the game for the informed. why give up this aspect to your opponent, just to delay one turn of bad event?

4) no civ is forever mighty. by seeding your own events, you keep your opponent guessing as well. can he afford to sacrifice units for colonies and risk a strength event from you while he is weakened? or could it be that you planted Terrorism or Rats in the event? It gives the strong player more risk in triggering events and may even further delay bad events from coming out.

of cos, this is a generalisation. there are times when delaying a bad event for one turn is extremely crucial. but those are the exception rather than the norm. also, over the course of the game which last mostly over 15 turns, the culmulative culture you gain from events can total up to the range of 20-30, which can means the difference of defeat and victory.

If you find yourself almost never playing event, read this tip and give your next game a try!

While it is obvious that military power can be extremely powerful in this game, I have one probably ten or more games with absolutely nothing but warriors, and then only a minuscule amount. This may sound crazy, but it is very possible. The key is to gain such a lead on culture, that any war against your civilization will be meaningless. Here are some keys to doing this
*Grab every single culture boosting leader that you can. I’m not completely sure who the best Age A leader is, maybe Hammurabi, but Michelangelo is the essential Age I leader, and Shakespeare or Bach follow him quite nicely. A great Age III leader to grab is Elvis/Charlie Chaplin (depending on the version) or I have also finished my games out with Ghandi, who can protect you from your opponents military as long as you have obtained the boost that you should have from your other leaders.
*Certain wonders can be game breaking when paired correctly. The most powerful combination in the game has to be St. Peter’s Basilica plus Michelangelo. When you drop Organized Religion with this pair, a single temple will produce a whopping 7 culture! Heavy culture wonders like the Taj Mahal or the Eiffel Tower are great for this strategy. The Hanging Gardens is also a great wonder to have with Michelangelo, and the Ocean Liner Service or Transcontinental Railroad can give your economy a strong boost. Just keep your eye out for these incredible combos.
*Your economy must be strong. You have to be able to build these urban buildings that will give you your culture lead. Get your economy stable as soon as possible.
*In order to keep your economy strong and to be able to get the right urban buildings, science is a must! I have found Libraries can help a lot, and there are also wonders that can get you the science you need to. Don’t neglect science!
*Events can be essential to your game. Don’t play any military events, unless you need to trigger an important event that you planted earlier. Always remember that you score points for triggering events. Even if an event doesn’t directly help you, if it won’t hurt you either, play it! Those culture points are what is going to win you the game.
*Now I know that keeping all of these elements under control can sometimes be impossible or at least extremely hard because of the layout of the card row. So don’t be afraid to supplement any element that you are lacking with yellow action cards. You just need to always keep your eye out for the cards that are essential. Don’t fill your hand with cards that will not help you.

Above all, a good strategy for any game is to be able to adapt. You cannot enter the game thinking, “I am going to play a heavy culture strategy this game” or anything of the sort. You need to keep your eye on the card row to see what combos are coming up, and adapt your strategy from the cards that you can take. Eventually, once your strategy takes shape, you need to focus on that strategy, but at the beginning of the game you need to be open to whatever game style presents itself to you. But if you are falling behind militarily, this strategy has worked for me many times. Hope it helps!

When I am playing a military game, I have found that the only way to win is to effectively use my tactic cards. Otherwise, there is no way to get enough strength to make a big enough difference. In order to effectively use tactics though, you need a good science base. Establish this base early in order to always have the most recent units and other important techs. Cartography and Warfare technologies can be really helpful, because military actions are essential in order to keep the right cards in your military hand. You need to be able to draw three cards every turn, because unless you get wars or aggressions, or military events, your military strategy will be kaput. Drawing cards will also help you get the tactics you need. Then, in Age II, grab Napoleon! If you have followed the steps up to that point, he will turn you into a powerhouse! Then declare as many wars as possible! Your opponent should crumble under your might!

-Your first full turn should almost invariably include building a third bronze and increasing your population. If you picked up ideal building site during your initial turn you can build a philosophy instead. This will gain you an additional science. On your second turn build a philosophy (or bronze). Resources and Science are extremely important in the early game.
-Try to keep a worker available while there are Age A events still to come. The Development of Religion event is something that you really can’t afford to miss out on if it comes up. Your opponents will be getting a free temple, be sure to get yours too.
-Alchemy, Iron, and Knights are all worth 2 civil actions. These are probably the 3 most important Age I cards. Iron and Alchemy are fairly obvious, and Knights give you access to all the Age I tactics. If you’re in a 3 (or 4) player game, the second (third) Iron card might even be worth 3 actions, depending on the situation.

Remember that some cards become obsolete when one age ends and another begins.
Prepare yourself earlier not to get caught and discard too many cards or worse face disasters after losing your leader.
This tip seems obvious, yes, but amazingly many players forget about that…

Warning: Applying this rule makes the game last longer and leads to higher total scores.

For the civil card I, II and III, other than leaders (!) when they are taken out the queue due to not being bought, set them aside. Unhired leaders and used up cards should be discarded as usual. When the deck of a given age ends, shuffle the set aside cards and continue the current age, but after this operation all unused cards from the current age are discarded normally. When the recycled stack ends the age ends as per normal game rules.