Along History
Along History Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Game Contents
- Object of the Game
- The Active Player
- The Notion of a "Round"
- Setup
- 1. Presentation of the Cards
- 2. The Dice
- 3. How to Play
- 4. Calamities
- 5. Wars
- 6. Achievements
- 7. Decadence
- 8. End of the Active Player's Turn
- 9. Universal Resources
- 10. Turn of the Other Players
- 11. End of the Prehistoric Age
- 12. Moving on to the Next Age
- 13. The Black Currency Die
- End of the Game
- Example of the Start of a Game
- Glossary
- Game Modes - Variants
- Detailed Summary of a Game Turn
Game Contents
- 1 rulebook
- 167 cards divided into three decks corresponding to the 3 Ages (49 for Prehistory, 54 for Antiquity and 59 for the Middle Ages) and 5 player aids
- 7 special dice (3 green, 2 red, 1 blue and 1 black)
- 10 "Universal Resources" tokens
- 20 silver coins of value 1 and 20 gold coins of value 5
- 1 "Achievements" game board
- 25 "Achievement" tokens numbered 1 to 7
- 10 wooden markers (1 disc and 1 marker in each of 5 colours: white, yellow, blue, green and red)
- 16 "Result" tokens showing the different faces of the green, blue and black dice
- 1 discard tile
Object of the Game
Have the most civilization points at the end of the game. If you play several Ages, players score points at the end of each of them according to the cards they have acquired and the Achievements they have reached. The winner is the player with the best civilization score at the end of the last Age played.
The Active Player
On each turn, one of the players is the Active Player and rolls the dice, with the possibility of modifying certain results (see below). Once his rolls are made, he may acquire, with the results obtained, one or even several cards and so develop his civilization. Once his turn is over, each player in clockwise order also tries to acquire cards using the results already obtained on the dice by the Active Player. Once all players have taken their turn, the player to the left of the Active Player takes the dice and becomes the new Active Player.
The Notion of a "Round"
A "Round" is the set of turns played by each player (Active Player + the other players). At the end of a round, the player to the left of the Active Player becomes the new Active Player and begins a new round.
Setup
- Each player must have enough room to lay out two rows of cards in his play area: his Events Zone at the top, which will generally contain three cards, and his Civilization Zone below it, which is not limited in the number of cards placed there (at the start of the game, the Civilization Zones are empty).
- Take the Prehistory deck and shuffle it. The two other decks, the black Currency die, the coins and the Result tokens numbered 3 to 6 are set aside. These elements are not used during this Age.
- Place the game board (Achievements board) in the centre of the table on the side of your choice. Each player chooses a colour and places the matching disc on the zero space of the score track, and the matching marker on the starting zone of the Achievements board.
- Place the 6 remaining dice near the board: 3 green, 1 blue and 2 red, to create the supply. Also place there the green and blue "Result" tokens (the yellow ones are only used from Antiquity on) and the "Universal Resources" tokens, 2 tokens per participant (excess tokens go back in the box). Each player takes one "Universal Resources" token and places it in his play area.
- After sorting them by value, place the "Achievement" tokens at random on the corresponding spaces, turned onto their "Achievement" side (not their number). Excess tokens are set aside and will be used for the next Age. The token numbered 7, which requires players to accumulate 15 gold, is not used when playing Prehistory.
- Create the Events Zones: each player receives 3 cards, which he lines up face up in front of him, in the upper part of his play area. This row is his Events Zone. These are the first cards the player will strive to acquire in order to bring them down into his Civilization Zone and so accumulate victory points. Note: Calamity and Wonder cards revealed during setup are immediately discarded and replaced by new cards. Once setup is complete, the discarded cards are shuffled back into the Prehistory deck.
- The oldest player at the table is designated the first Active Player and takes the discard tile.
Setup diagram (2 players): the supply of Universal Resources tokens; the discard tile (used by the Active Player); the Prehistory draw deck; the Result tokens; the dice (Active Player); each player's Events Zone and Civilization Zone (player 1 blue, player 2 red); the player markers; the Achievements tokens. Set aside during the Prehistory Age: the Antiquity and Middle Ages decks.
1. Presentation of the Cards
The cards of Along History display various symbols that explain their game effects. Some also contain text describing a specific effect.
Note: some cards will let you get around the basic rules of the game. When a card contradicts the basic rules, the card text takes precedence over the rule.
There are 5 types of cards that can join your Civilization Zone: Terrain, Personality, Progress, Wonder and Calamity.
A card shows: the acquisition cost of the card (for example: 5 Population and 1 Culture); the card type (for example a Personality); the victory points; the linked-card symbol (*); the alternative cost in Gold; the illustration; the card name; the effect or particular characteristic (some effects give permanent bonuses); and the bonuses generated each turn once the card is acquired (for example Culture).
* About the linked-card symbol: it lets you see at a glance whether a card is tied to a "free acquisition" or "destruction" interaction with another card. For example, the card Homo Sapiens, once acquired, lets you get the card Sedentarization without paying its cost. This is because it was from Homo Sapiens onwards that man became sedentary. These two cards therefore bear the linked-card symbol.
Calamity cards do not have this symbol because, even though their harmful effect most often leads to the destruction of a card, all the cards of the game are concerned (the symbol would have to be shown everywhere, which would make no sense).
Note: although the card "Volcanic Eruption" causes the destruction of the card "Pompeii", only the latter has the symbol.
Terrain, Personality, Progress, Wonder and Calamity cards are placed in your Civilization Zone after being acquired, from where they can generate various effects, bonuses and victory points.
Wonder cards let you gain a Universal Resources token (see Universal Resources).
1. Cost
All cards have a Population cost, which corresponds to the green dice, to which is always added a Resource cost (Ingenuity, Show of Force or Culture) represented by the blue die. The cost is the total number of results of the indicated type needed to acquire the card and move it into your Civilization Zone (see The Dice). The cost of a card can be reduced (even to zero) depending on the bonuses generated by the cards you own in your Civilization Zone. Watch the effects of each card carefully!
2. Effect
Many cards have a specific, permanent effect. The card text indicates when and how this effect is applied.
Example: the card "Fishing", once acquired, is a Progress that lets you ignore the ravages of famine (refer to the text of the Famine card)!
3. Victory Points
Each card in your Civilization Zone at the end of an Age grants you a certain number of victory points, which accumulate from one Age to the next. The player with the most victory points at the end of the game wins (see Scoring at the End of an Age).
4. Bonuses
Some cards display one or more diamond-shaped symbols at the bottom of the card. Once these cards are acquired in your Civilization Zone, each provides one or more bonuses that can be added to your dice results. For example, the card Fishing, once acquired, brings one Population point to its owner. Your civilization masters fishing techniques, eats better, and your Population increases.
A card's bonus is only available once and can only be used again when you begin a new turn. When you use a card's bonuses (this may be during your turn as Active Player or outside it), tilt the card 90 degrees to remember that they have been used. When you use a bonus, add to your result the number of symbols shown on the card you have just tilted.
At the start of your next turn (see chapter 10), you straighten all the tilted cards in your Civilization Zone and all your bonuses can be activated again. If you have several bonuses, it will be easy for you to acquire several cards in a single turn.
Some cards can generate several bonuses when tilted. These bonuses cannot be split and are all assigned to the same card. Cards that generate a Gold bonus add gold coins to your treasury (see Black Currency Die).
Example: as long as the card "Forest" remains in your Civilization Zone, you can benefit from the free Ingenuity resource by tilting the card.
Note: using a card bonus does not allow you to re-roll a die or exchange a card.
2. The Dice
There are 4 types of dice:
- Three green dice (Population), which can earn between 1 and 3 Population points. Three faces show 1 Population point, two faces 2 Population points and one face 3 Population points.
- One blue die (Resource) with 2 Ingenuity faces, 2 Show of Force faces and 2 Culture faces.
- Two red dice with one x2 face (Multiplier), one War face, two Dice Re-roll faces and two Golden Age faces.
- One Currency die (Gold) with 3 faces of 3 Gold, one face of 4 Gold, one face of 5 Gold and one face of 6 Gold.
Reminder: this die is not used during the Prehistoric Age.
The Red Dice (specific to the Active Player)
The red dice offer specific advantages to the Active Player. These dice give neither Population nor Resources, but trigger various effects. All red dice effects are optional.
- "Dice Re-roll": discarding this die lets you re-roll all or some of the dice whose results you do not like.
- "Multiplier" (x2): you may double the value of the result of another of your dice, whether Population, Resources, Currency, the War result, or the x2 of the other red die. Example: x2 x2 combined with 4 Gold = 16 Gold.
- "War": you may declare War on another player at the end of your turn (see War).
- "Golden Age": lets you straighten all the tilted cards in your Civilization Zone. You can thus benefit from your bonuses several times during your turn.
3. How to Play
Assuming the Prehistoric Age has been chosen to start: the oldest player at the table is designated first Active Player, takes the 6 dice and rolls them. He then acquires one or more cards from his Events Zone with the results obtained (each card shows a cost expressed in Population points and Resources at the top left). Each player, in clockwise order, may try to buy cards using the same dice results as those generated by the Active Player. At the end of each round, the player to the left of the Active Player takes the dice and becomes the Active Player in turn for the new round.
A/ On your turn as Active Player, you roll the 6 available dice. Your goal is to acquire as many cards as possible from your Events Zone, in order to bring them down into your Civilization Zone where they will generate various effects, bonuses, victory points (at the end of the Age) and perhaps allow you to progress on the Achievements board.
B/ After rolling the dice, you may choose to discard one of them by placing it on the Discard Tile, either to re-roll another die hoping for a better result, or to exchange one of the cards in your Events Zone with a card from an opponent's Events Zone. You may do this several times. Warning: a die used to re-roll another die or exchange a card can no longer be used to acquire a card.
C/ Once your rolls are finished, you may try to acquire one or more of the cards in your Events Zone. To do so, you must have at least as many symbols on the dice as the cost shown on the card.
D/ For each card acquired, discard the corresponding dice and bring the card down into your Civilization Zone.
Reminder: the "Dice Re-roll" result on the red die lets you re-roll as many dice as you wish, not just one. Discarding it also lets you, as with the others, exchange a card.
Clarification on Dice Results Obtained and Bonuses Acquired
The result of a Population die cannot be split to acquire several cards. Any excess result is lost. Example: if one of your dice shows 3 Population, you cannot assign 2 Population to one card and 1 Population to another. All 3 Population results must be assigned to the same card.
Important: when you acquire a card, you may immediately benefit from the bonuses and/or effects it provides in order to possibly buy another card.
Important: once the 3 green Population dice and the blue Resource die have been placed on the discard tile, the player to the left of the Active Player takes the 4 corresponding Result tokens. Example: the Active Player has discarded certain dice; the next player then takes the matching tokens on their colour side.
Reminder: only the Active Player benefits from the effects of the red dice; there are therefore no red result tokens.
Example of Acquiring a Card
To acquire the card "Sedentarization" in her Events Zone, Sophie needs at least 5 Population with green dice and at least one Ingenuity with a blue die. On her turn, she rolls the 6 dice and obtains: a blue die, green dice and the red dice x2 and Golden Age.
1/ She chooses to keep the green die (2 Pop), which she combines with the red x2 die, giving her 4 Population, to which she adds one of the two green dice (1 Pop) to have the 5 Population required. 2/ To visualize what she decides to do, she places the dice used to buy the card on the coveted card. She therefore has 3 usable dice left. 3/ She does not have the Ingenuity symbol that would let her make her civilization sedentary, and therefore acquire the card, but she still has the blue die and two other dice. She chooses to discard the red Sun die (Golden Age; its use is detailed on page 9) in order to re-roll the blue die: she obtains the Culture symbol. 4/ She discards the green die (1 Pop), which is useless to her, to re-roll the blue die and... Bingo! She gets the Ingenuity symbol she needed to acquire the card "Sedentarization", which comes down into her Civilization Zone. Thanks to this card she now has a bonus of 1 Population that she could use immediately by tilting her card. Having no possibility of buying another card for the moment, her turn is over. When a player finishes his turn, he draws cards to refill his Events Zone: Sophie draws a new card to fill her Events Zone.
4. Calamities
Cards with the Calamity symbol represent Calamities that can strike your civilization. At the start of your turn as Active Player, if a Calamity card is in your Events Zone, you must resolve it before the end of your turn or suffer the negative effects described in the "Failure" paragraph of the card.
Calamities are resolved in the same way as other cards, by paying their cost with the results of your dice rolls. Once resolved by paying its cost, a Calamity is placed in your Civilization Zone. Defeating the plague or surviving a volcanic eruption is an integral part of your civilization's heritage!
Unresolved Calamities cause the harmful effects described in the Failure paragraph of the card, then they are discarded, or sometimes moved to another player's Events Zone.
Note: a Calamity that appears in your Events Zone at the end of your turn does not take effect immediately, even if you are the Active Player. Only at the end of your next turn as Active Player will you suffer its negative effects, if it has not been resolved. As long as you are not the Active Player, you are at no risk, which can leave you a few turns to resolve the corresponding calamity.
1. Non-Transmissible Calamities
Discarding a die lets you exchange cards in your Events Zone with those of another player. Calamities whose text area says "NON-TRANSMISSIBLE" can NEVER be exchanged. You absolutely must resolve them or suffer the negative effects to get rid of them (they are discarded once their negative effect has been applied, unless the card says otherwise)!
The other Calamity cards (without the "Non-transmissible" mention) can be exchanged normally.
Example: the calamity Earthquake is not transmissible: it is impossible to avoid the fury of the elements. On the other hand, the Wolves (a transmissible card) can be driven off and sent to your neighbours...
2. Acquiring a Calamity for Free
Some cards, once placed in your Civilization Zone, let you acquire specific Calamities for free, without having to resolve them or suffer their negative effects. Pay attention to the effects of the cards in your various Zones!
Example: you are not affected by the Calamity "Harsh Winter" if you have the card "Fire" in your Civilization Zone. A good fire will let you get through the winter! If the card "Winter" appears in your Events Zone and you own the card "Fire", you can acquire it for free during one of your turns.
Illustration note: the interaction symbol is present on the card "Fire". This card interacts with Harsh Winter (among others). Note that this is not indicated on this card; it is the Harsh Winter card that details the effect.
Losing or Destroying Cards
When an effect asks you to destroy or lose a card, that card is removed from your Civilization Zone and placed in the discard pile.
The negative effects of Calamities often lead to the destruction of cards in your Civilization Zone. You must destroy in priority the specified card, if you have one of that type in your Civilization Zone.
If you have no card of the specified type, you must still destroy one of your cards of your choice. If you have no card in your Civilization Zone, this effect is ignored.
5. Wars
Wars are always resolved at the end of your turn, after the Calamity resolution phase and once the Result tokens (blue and green) are in the possession of the next player. A player may launch several wars in the same turn. In Along History there are two ways to declare war on another player: using a "Universal Resources" token, or the War symbol on the red die. The two effects are similar.
You are never obliged to declare war on another player.
To wage war, in addition to having the corresponding effect, you must assemble the largest possible army in terms of Population points.
1. The Attacker
It is time to prepare your army for the coming battle. First thing to do: you may choose to use the Population bonuses on the cards in your Civilization Zone by tilting them. If they were already tilted, they cannot be used for your war. Then roll the 3 green dice, and add to them the amount of Population that has just been tilted + any military bonuses (permanent effects, see below) of your cards.
For example, the card "Fire" tilted for war adds 2 to the value of your army.
Certain permanent effects of the cards in your Civilization Zone can also increase the value of your army (military bonus). These effects can be used even if the card is already tilted. Be vigilant!
Once your strategy is set (the number of cards tilted to add their Population bonuses), roll the 3 Population dice. The total Population obtained (dice + bonuses) is your Attack Strength for this combat.
General: this characteristic appears in some Personality text areas. For each General (tilted or not) in your Civilization Zone, you may re-roll all or some of the dice if their result does not suit you. Note: there are no Generals in Prehistory.
Illustration notes:
- The card "Fire" used for war will bring 2 points to the value of your army if you tilt it.
- The card "Armor" brings one point to your army in case of war, in attack as in defence, and it is not necessary to tilt it to benefit from the bonus. It is a permanent advantage.
- If already tilted, William the Conqueror no longer offers his Population bonus, but his permanent power still brings one point to the value of your army + the General advantage.
2. The Defender
As Defender, you also assemble your army, first choosing cards with a Population bonus to tilt (if you have any), adding your possible permanent bonuses and finally rolling the 3 green dice to add their value.
3. Determining the Winner
If the Attack Strength is greater, the Attacker wins the war and takes a war booty stolen from the Defender: determine the difference in value between the two armies. This result corresponds to the maximum value of the Achievement token that the Attacker may steal from the Defender (see Achievements below).
If the Defender has no Achievement token, launching a war was pointless. If the Defender does not have a token of the corresponding value, the Attacker takes a token of lesser value.
Example: Cécile attacks Jordan. Attack value 11. Jordan defends and only obtains a defence value of 7. The delta is 11 - 7 = 4. Jordan has 4 Achievement tokens of value 1, 2, 3 and 5. Cécile, unable to take a token of 4, will settle for the token of 3 that Jordan holds. The war is over.
A victorious Attacker can only take one token during each war.
If the Defence Strength is greater than or equal, the Attacker is repelled. The Defender does not win any war booty. He can only be glad to have repelled a belligerent opponent.
6. Achievements
The last thing a player must do before the end of his turn is to check whether or not he can progress on the Achievements Board. A player is never obliged to advance his civilization marker if he does not wish to.
If the Civilization cards acquired allow it, the player may advance his civilization marker on the Achievements board to win an Achievement token (which generates victory points at the end of the game).
During game setup, each numbered space was given an Achievement token on its Symbol side. Each token represents a condition that your civilization must fulfil to progress on the board. On the back of the tokens is the number corresponding to its position on the board. This value will be added to your victory points at the end of the game. Achievement tokens won are always placed number side up, in your play area, in view of everyone.
There Are 6 Types of Achievement Tokens
- Own a particular type of card (here a Terrain card). An x2 or x3 indicates that to win this token you must own several. This type of token comes in Progress, Calamities, Illustrious Personalities and Wonders.
- The sum of the civilization points of the cards in your possession must at least equal the value shown on the token.
- Minimum number of cards your civilization must have.
- Your civilization must own at least two cards of different types (Terrain, Calamity, etc.).
- Your civilization must benefit from at least 6 visible bonuses (tilted or not). It may be a specific type of bonus.
- Your civilization must have a treasury of at least 15 units of Gold.
On your turn, your marker may either stay in place, or move back one and only one space, or advance: it may then advance several spaces as long as it does not reach a token. Your Civilization marker must always follow the paths printed on the board to move. The presence of an opponent's marker on a space does not affect the movement of yours. When advancing, it is forbidden to move back. Vertical movement is allowed. If your civilization meets the criteria of one or more tokens (check the data requested by the coveted token and compare it with those of the cards in your Civilization Zone), you may move your marker onto the token of your choice and acquire it: the movement of your marker is then finished.
In the example, each player initially has access to 5 Achievement tokens. If your civilization meets the criteria of one or more tokens, you may move your marker onto the token of your choice and acquire it. Only one token can be acquired per turn.
Example: Jordan (red player) has played his first turn and acquired a card "Plain" granting him the Population bonus. He can therefore advance his Civilization marker either onto the space with the token whose prerequisite is the Population bonus, or onto the upper space which requires owning a Terrain card. His card meets both criteria but he chooses the lower token, which gives him the choice on the next turn between owning 3 cards or owning 2 cards of different types. The other token offered him only one choice. He places his marker while taking the token, which he places near his play area.
Cécile plays her turn and also has access to 5 Achievement tokens. By acquiring "Homo Erectus", her civilization automatically discovers "Fire", because by luck this card was also in her Events Zone. This opens many prospects for evolution. Apart from the condition requiring 3 cards (Cécile only has two for the moment), all the other tokens are accessible (she meets all the criteria). Cécile chooses to take the token of value 2 which requires owning at least two cards of different nature: that works, she has a Personality and a Progress.
This nice progression nevertheless opens the road for her opponent to obtain tokens of value 3...
A player is never obliged to move his Civilization marker to acquire an Achievement token. If you cannot, or do not want to, advance your marker on the board, you may move it back one space (and only one). It is sometimes possible to acquire a token this way when moving back.
It is possible to advance your marker, and therefore acquire an Achievement token, on a turn where your civilization has not acquired a card, as long as the required criteria are met in your Civilization Zone.
7. Decadence
Has your civilization just obtained an Achievement token? Very well, but know that every medal has its reverse. When you win an Achievement token, you MUST apply the Decadence rule.
It simulates the fact that, during the evolution of your civilization, certain mistakes will be made. It may be the abandonment of lands that would have been very useful to you later, the forgetting of a know-how or a technology, the loss of a Personality too early who should have accomplished great things afterwards.
Choose one of the cards in your Civilization Zone and slide it under another card so that only the nature of the card and the victory points it generates remain visible. Several cards can be slid under the same card.
Example: Cécile does not want her civilization to lose the know-how of Fire (which brings two Population as a bonus) and places her card Homo Erectus into decadence. "Homo Erectus" will disappear but at least he will have brought "Fire".
Although partially covered by the card "Fire", the card "Homo Erectus" still counts as a card, as do its 2 victory points, to advance your Civilization on the Achievements Board on later turns. If the card had offered bonuses, these, being hidden by the Fire card, would have been lost. Even if the interaction symbol still appears, no interaction is now possible with the card Homo Erectus. You must consider that this card no longer has a name or bonus, quite simply.
When the effect of a calamity forces me to destroy a card in my Civilization Zone, I can never remove a card that is in decadence (under another one). I must always remove an uncovered card. If I destroy a card that was on top of a card in decadence, the latter becomes visible again and therefore active: it again offers all its bonuses and effects if it has any.
The harmful effects of decadence do not stop there. At the end of the Age, when counting points, each bonus (diamond) on a card placed in decadence makes you lose 2 victory points. Buying cards without bonuses, or even not moving on the Achievements Board, can be components of a winning strategy.
Important: when a player has only one card, the Decadence effect does not apply.
8. End of the Active Player's Turn
You may choose to end your turn at any time, even if you still have unused dice. Do not forget that you can always exchange a card from your Events Zone or re-roll a die by discarding another one.
9. Universal Resources
If, during your turn, no card comes down into your Civilization Zone, voluntarily or not, you gain a Universal Resources token.
The other way to gain a Universal Resources token is to acquire a Wonder card. At the moment of their acquisition or purchase, Wonders make you gain a Universal Resources token.
You can store a maximum of two. Each token, once discarded, lets you benefit either from 3 Population points, or from the Resource symbol of your choice (Ingenuity, Culture or Show of Force), or trigger a war.
These tokens are double-sided, as a reminder: one 3 Population side and one Resources side.
Nothing prevents you from spending two Universal Resources tokens in the same turn.
IMPORTANT: You can use your Universal Resource to trigger a war. The 3 Population bonus can never be used to add to your military score. Only the dice and the Bonuses generated by cards can be used to fight.
10. Turn of the Other Players
The turn of the other players then begins, in clockwise order.
If a player has tilted cards in his Civilization Zone at the start of his turn, he straightens them before beginning to play. This rule also applies at the start of the Active Player's turn.
Using, if desired, the Result tokens (the equivalent of the results obtained by the Active Player on his dice rolls, namely, necessarily, 3 green Population tokens and one blue Resources token), each player in turn will also try to acquire cards using the results obtained by the Active Player. Reminder: the red dice are not used because they are specific to the Active Player's turn.
A player may choose not to use a Result token (as if he were discarding a die) in order to exchange a card in his Events Zone with an opponent's (he then flips the token to its black & white side to show that this token is no longer usable). He cannot flip a Result token to obtain a new result on another token (no dice rolling when you are not the Active Player).
Once his purchases are made, a player may launch a war via a "Universal Resources" token (there will then be dice rolls in this case) and then progress or not on the Achievements Board. Just like the Active Player, a player none of whose cards came down into his Civilization Zone may take a Universal Resources token.
When the last player finishes his turn, he returns the Result tokens to the supply. A new round begins (see "The Notion of a Round").
11. End of the Prehistoric Age
As soon as a player acquires the token of the last Achievement level on the board (value 7), the Prehistoric Age comes to an end. The current round is finished, then a first score calculation is made.
The players then enter the Age of Antiquity. Once this Age is finished, the Middle Ages Age can begin if you have decided to play all three Ages (see Moving on to the Next Age, below).
An Age also ends (a rare case unless there are 5 players) if the corresponding deck is exhausted. As soon as a player draws the last card of the deck, the current round is finished and the Age comes to an end.
Scoring at the End of an Age
1/ Add up the victory points of each card in your Civilization Zone (also counting the value of the cards that were put into decadence). 2/ Count the number of bonuses that were lost because of decadence. For each lost bonus, deduct 2 points from your score. If you move from one Age to the next, do not mix the cards when counting. 3/ Add the sum of the points totalled by the Achievement tokens in your possession. Record your total victory points on the score track using the disc of your colour.
12. Moving on to the Next Age
At the end of the Prehistoric Age, proceed as follows: 1/ All cards present in the Events Zones are discarded. 2/ All cards that had been placed in decadence are discarded, as well as all cards that bring no bonus. 3/ If you have cards with bonuses left, place them one on top of another so that only the bonuses brought by each card remain visible. This legacy of the past will help you start Antiquity better (see example, below). 4/ The Prehistory deck is put back in the box. It will no longer be used for the rest of the game. 5/ Add the black Currency die to the dice supply, as well as the 4 Currency Result tokens to the corresponding supply. 6/ Place the coins in the centre of the play area. 7/ Gather all the Achievement tokens and set up the board again (see initial setup). Put the Civilization markers back on the Start space. The score discs are of course not moved. Players begin the new era with one Universal Resources token. These tokens are not kept from one era to the next. 8/ Shuffle the Antiquity deck and create each player's Events Zones in the same way as for the Prehistoric Age: each player receives 3 cards which he lines up face up in front of him, then all Calamity and Wonder cards revealed during this step are immediately discarded and replaced by new cards. Once setup is complete, the discarded cards are shuffled back into the Antiquity deck. 9/ Place the Antiquity deck in the centre of the table, within reach of all players. 10/ The player to the left of the last Active Player becomes the first Active Player for Antiquity.
If you then wish to play the Middle Ages Age, you will proceed in the same way when the time comes, using the Middle Ages deck.
Example: after calculating his points, Jordan has 3 cards left which he arranges vertically. For the next Age, he will have a legacy of the past made up of 3 Population bonuses and one Ingenuity bonus.
The Legacy of the Past cards kept for the next Age have only one use: helping you acquire Civilization cards of the new Age. They are not taken into account for your progression on the Achievements Board and cannot be used to wage war or be put into decadence.
You can only use the bonus or bonuses of a single card each turn. Once used, the card is put away in the box.
(Illustration: the card "Class" is shown with its cost and the note "Free if you own Homo Erectus".)
13. The Black Currency Die
From Antiquity on, currency makes its appearance in the history of Humanity, symbolized by the black Currency die which is added to the six basic dice.
Once rolled, if you choose to keep it (it could be used as an Action: exchange or re-roll of a die), gain as many Gold coins as the amount it shows.
Reminder: silver-coloured coins are worth 1 and gold-coloured coins are worth 5.
Gold coins are kept in your play area until they are spent or lost. Gold is kept when moving from one Age to another.
Some cards show an alternative Gold cost, in addition to the other costs. These cards can either be acquired normally with Population and Resources, or be bought with Gold, at the player's choice. You may choose to spend Gold at any time during your turn to buy a card in your Events Zone that has a Gold cost and transfer it to your Civilization Zone.
End of the Game
The winner of the game is the player who has accumulated the most victory points over the Age or Ages that were played.
In case of a tie, the player who owns the Achievement token of the highest value wins. If the tie persists, the second token of highest value breaks the tie, and so on. In case of a perfect tie, the players share the victory.
Example of the Start of a Game
Turn 1
I start as Active Player. My tribe of hominids has just come down from the trees and off we go to conquer the world!
My Events Zone shows 3 cards that may perhaps be the cradle of a great civilization: a forest area, marshes, and... terrible sabre-toothed tigers, which, from the start, tend to take my tribe for a food reserve. I will have to get rid of them as quickly as possible, because on each turn these charming kitties reduce my Population results by 1 (this is indicated in the card text and a Population pictogram reminds me of it).
I roll the 6 dice (not the black die, currency having only appeared in Antiquity), and I obtain: a Show of Force, Population dice of 2, 1 and 2, the red x2 and the red Golden Age.
I could, with the Show of Force and 4 Population, deal with the tiger problem and bring it down into my civilization zone, but I prefer to send it to a neighbour and give myself the forest, which will let me produce an Ingenuity resource each turn. I discard the red Golden Age die, which is useless to me, to re-roll the blue die and I obtain the Ingenuity I needed.
I discard a green die (2 Pop) and exchange my tiger with the card Hunting of one of my neighbours, who grimaces...
I acquire the Forest (Ingenuity + a green die of 2 Population combined with my red x2 die + my last die of 1 Population, which makes 5 Population). The Forest joins my civilization zone, I draw a new card (the Australopithecus). I progress on the Achievements board. My opponents play their turn.
On their turn, they will therefore try to acquire cards using the following resources, without being able to change the results (they use the Result tokens corresponding to the Active Player's blue and green dice): a Show of Force and Population results.
The one who received my tiger as a gift will even have to play with one Population point less... Unless he decides to use his Universal Resource to generate a Show of Force action, or give up one of his Result tokens to exchange the tiger again.
Turn 2
My neighbour to the left being Active Player, I will only be able to play with the result of his blue and green dice. That said, I have an Ingenuity resource thanks to my forest!
The new Active Player having played his turn, the others play in turn and I therefore have one Culture resource, 6 Population points, my Ingenuity resource produced by my forest and still my Universal Resources token.
My Culture resource, combined with 3 Population, lets me acquire Australopithecus. I use my Forest, which I tilt to generate an Ingenuity resource that I combine with my Universal Resources token on its 3 Population side, to which I add a 1 Population token, to also acquire Hunting. My tribe will grow, because Hunting gives me one extra Population point each turn!
I have one unused token (2 Population) left, which I flip onto its black side to show that I am giving up using it to perform an Exchange action, and I gladly give my marsh to one of my opponents in exchange for a Megalith: a wonder!
I progress once again on the Achievements board and, my civilization having more than one card, I must therefore put one of them into decadence. I choose Australopithecus to keep my Bonuses.
Turn 3
I have refilled my Events Zone and I begin a new turn with a civilization that is developing in the Forest, that masters hunting techniques and whose Australopithecus status is now part of its past.
I begin my turn by straightening the cards in my Civilization Zone that were tilted during my previous turn. Note that the Australopithecus card is now under my Forest card. I could have placed it under my Hunting card, it makes no difference. You can even place several cards in Decadence under the same card.
The 3rd Active Player offers us a rather mediocre combination (a Show of Force and Population results). What is more, he did it on purpose!
Let us analyse the situation: I have no card that can be acquired with a Show of Force. I could give up my blue die to exchange a card that could be acquired thanks to my Ingenuity resource from my Forest and Population from my Hunting, but I choose to do nothing.
If I do not acquire a card this turn, I gain a Universal Resources token which will be very useful to me on the next turn. With the card Homo Erectus, Fire is acquired for free... On the next turn, I try to acquire the three cards of my Events Zone, provided nobody comes to do his "shopping" at my place by exchanging my cards... Note that Homo Erectus is acquired with only 3 Population + the Culture resource when you own Australopithecus! Alas, I do have this hominid, but the fact of having placed it in Decadence is as if it were no longer there. On the other hand, its card still counts for the conditions to progress on the Achievements board. Although I have not bought a card, I could progress on the Achievements board, but I do nothing and take the opportunity to move my marker back one space.
Glossary
- Buy: acquire a card from your Events Zone to place it in your Civilization Zone by using Gold.
- Acquire: transfer a card from your Events Zone to your Civilization Zone using the Population and Resource dice and/or your bonuses and Universal Resources tokens.
- Acquisition: effect to apply at the moment a card is acquired.
- Golden Age: face of the red die allowing the Active Player to straighten all his tilted cards.
- Bonus: advantage in Population, Resource or Gold offered by a card and shown in a diamond at the bottom of the cards.
- Active bonus: visible bonus, therefore not covered by a card following a decadence effect.
- Decadence: effect linked to the progress of your civilization causing the disappearance of the bonuses offered by a card by placing it under another one.
- Discard: remove a card from an Events Zone to place it in the discard pile, or place a die on the discard tile.
- Destroy: remove a card from a Civilization Zone to place it in the discard pile.
- Exchange: give a card located in your Events Zone to another player in order to take one from his.
- Permanent effect: effect provided by a card even once tilted.
Game Modes - Variants
Introductory Mode for Playing with the Youngest
It is possible to simplify the way Along History is played so that younger audiences can enjoy it. In this case, setup is slightly different: use the central board only for score tracking, place no token or marker on the board. Instead, each player starts the game with 3 Achievement tokens: 1, 3 and 5, which he may have stolen from him at the end of a war. The rules for Achievements and Decadence are not played.
An Age ends during the turn in which one of the participants has at least 8 cards in his Civilization Zone. The game is thus less complex in its course.
For a less aggressive game, you can also remove the War rules. The War result on the red dice is simply ignored as if it were a blank face. If you play without War, there is no need to hand out the 3 Achievement tokens at the start of the game.
For Shorter Games
Progressive Mode: the first Age ends as soon as a player acquires a token of value 5. During setup, do not place tokens 6 and 7 on the board. The second Age is then played until token 7.
Linear Mode: each Age ends at token 6.
Long Games for Seasoned Players
Play the 3 Ages in a row, each up to token 7.
Nothing prevents you, if you wish to go through the 3 Ages within a somewhat shorter game, from adopting the Progressive (5-6-7) or Linear (6-6-6) modes.
Detailed Summary of a Game Turn
A - Active Player's Turn
- Upkeep: the Active Player straightens the tilted cards in his Civilization Zone.
- Initial roll: the Active Player rolls all the dice.
- Actions: for each die discarded, the Active Player may re-roll a die or exchange a card from his Events Zone.
- Acquisitions & Purchases: the Active Player obtains Civilization cards by paying their cost.
- Calamities: the Active Player applies the Failure effects of unresolved Calamities.
- War: the player may attack his opponents if he has the prerequisites.
- Events Zone: if his Events Zone has fewer than 3 cards, the Active Player completes it by drawing new cards.
- Achievements: the Active Player checks whether he can and wishes to move his Achievement marker on the board and applies the Decadence effect where applicable.
- Universal Resources: if no card entered his Civilization Zone during this turn, the Active Player gains a "Universal Resources" token.
B - Turn of the Other Players (Clockwise)
- Upkeep: the player straightens the tilted cards in his Civilization Zone.
- Actions: for each Result token he flips to its black & white side, the player may exchange a card from his Events Zone.
- Acquisitions & Purchases: the player obtains Civilization cards by paying their cost.
- War: the player may initiate a war if he discards a Universal Resources token.
- Events Zone: if his Events Zone has fewer than 3 cards, the player completes it by drawing new cards.
- Achievements: the player checks whether he can and wishes to move his Achievement marker on the board.
- Universal Resources: if no card entered his Civilization Zone during this turn, the player gains a "Universal Resources" token.
C - Change of Active Player (Clockwise)
The Result tokens used are returned to the supply near the game board.