Imagine yourself writing on the pages of history, where time unfolds through three great ages: the Dark Ages, the High and Late Middle Ages. Your odyssey starts with the people of the Dark Ages, when the world is still veiled in obscurity. With each step through the ages, your people evolve into a new civilization — the heir to your past Glory. In the process of this evolution, some ancient traits fade away while new opportunities emerge, opening the path to new horizons. This requires you to continuously adapt and to consider the strengths and weaknesses of your allies and enemies.
The game covers a significant period of over 1000 years, when the concept of a nation did not yet exist in the modern understanding. However, in the game, the terms "peoples" and "nations" are used interchangeably, which can mean either an isolated ethnic group or a small tribe, as well as a common culture of many tribes or peoples.
In the game, more than 150 asymmetric nations are available, each represented by cards with four unique abilities:
- Name
- Description
- Type
- Loss of ability – specifies the age in which this ability is lost
- Ethnogenesis
Like technologies, abilities of nations are divided into three types:
instant,
permanent, and
recurrent, and have a similar application. Unlike instant technologies, the nation's instant ability activates immediately after choosing the nation, at the start of your first turn.
At the beginning of the game, choose a nation of Age I in one of the following ways:
¶ Random
- Deal three cards to each player.
- Each player chooses one nation and places its card in their player zone, while the rest cards are returned to the deck.
Recommended for experienced players. Starting with the first player and moving clockwise, each player chooses a nation as follows:
- Reveal one more card than the number of players.
- Players who are not choosing now, take turns discarding one card each.
- The player that chooses selects one of the two remaining cards, discarding the other.
With the onset of each new Age, you need to choose a new nation. Starting with the first player and moving clockwise, use the ethnogenesis diagram to separate all the cards of the nations of the new Age, available for the development of your previous nation. Choose one nation and place its card over the card of your previous nation, so as to cover the abilities that are no longer available in the new Age.