Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object
• Components
• Setup
• Order of Play
  • 1. Roll Dice and Collect Goods and Food
    • Collect Goods
    • Collect Food
  • 2. Feed Cities and Resolve Disasters
    • Feed Cities
    • Tracking Lost Points
    • Resolve Disasters
  • 3. Build Cities and/or Monuments
  • 4. Buy a Development
  • 5. Discard Goods in Excess of 6 and Pass Dice
• Game End
• Winning the Game
• Rules for 3-player Games
• Rules for 2-player Games
• Rules for Solitaire Play
• Trading Game
• There's More!
• Table 1 – Dice Results
• Table 2 – Disaster Results
• Table 3 – Developments

Object

Score the most points by becoming the most advanced and prestigious civilization by accumulating cities, monuments, and developments while avoiding disasters.

Components

• 4 Pegboards
• 24 Pegs
• 7 Dice
• 1 Pad of Score Sheets
• This Rulebook

Setup

• Each player takes a score sheet, a pegboard, 6 pegs, and a pencil (not provided).
• Each player sets his food peg to 3 and each of his five goods pegs to 0.
• Determine a start player and hand him 3 dice. The start player draws a "Star" on his score sheet, which will be used to determine who takes the last turn of the game.

Order of Play

The game takes place over a series of rounds. Each round, every player takes a turn. When all players have had a turn, the round is over and the next round begins.

A player may do all of the following Steps, if possible (and/or as dictated by the die roll):

1. Roll dice and collect goods and food
2. Feed cities and resolve disasters
3. Build cities and/or monuments
4. Buy no more than one development
5. Discard goods in excess of six and pass the dice

1. Roll Dice and Collect Goods and Food

Roll 1 die for each city in your possession. (Players start with 3 cities.) Set aside any dice that have a skull on them. You may now keep or re-roll any of your remaining dice. After this second roll, again set aside any dice with a skull on them. (Add them to any dice with skulls from the first roll.) You may now keep or re-roll any of the dice (including the ones you kept from the first roll) that do not have skulls on them. After this third roll, you must keep the results of all of your dice. See Table 1 – Dice Results.

Collect Goods

Add your goods, one at a time, to any goods you may already have by shifting each peg one position to the right, starting from the bottom row, Wood, and proceeding upwards to Stone, Pottery, Cloth, and Spearheads. If you earned more than 5 goods this turn, add the additional goods, starting at the bottom row (Wood) and proceeding upwards again. If a row is full, you don't collect it, but it still counts as one of the goods you earned this turn. Every turn you collect goods, you begin at the bottom row (Wood) and proceed upwards as above.

Example: Jim started his turn with a Wood and a Stone. He rolls the dice and ends up with 8 new goods! He adds the first 5 goods (Wood, Stone, Pottery, Cloth, and Spearheads) to his peg board, then starts again at the bottom, adding another 3 goods (Wood, Stone, and Pottery). He now has 3 Wood, 3 Stone, 2 Pottery, 1 Cloth, and 1 Spearhead.

Collect Food

Advance your food peg 1 position for each food symbol on your food dice. Note that you collect 2 food or 2 workers on the die marked with the food-or-workers icon.

If a player does not have room for food on his pegboard, the player does not collect the excess food.

2. Feed Cities and Resolve Disasters

Feed Cities

Each city (each die rolled) requires 1 food. You must subtract 1 food (on your pegboard) for each city in your possession. If you don't have enough food, each city that is not fed suffers famine and costs you 1 point per unfed city.

Tracking Lost Points

Check off a box in the Disasters section of your score sheet for each point lost. These points will be tallied, and subtracted from your score, at the end of the game.

Resolve Disasters

If a player's dice show more than 1 skull, a Disaster will occur. See Table 2 – Disaster Results.

3. Build Cities and/or Monuments

For each worker shown on your dice, check off a box in a city or a monument. Once you've checked off all the boxes in a city, you've built it – circle the die icon on top. You'll now begin your turn with one more die per turn. You can build up to 4 new cities (for a total of 7 cities) giving you a maximum of 7 dice per turn.

If you're the first player to check off all the boxes for a given monument, circle the larger number of points next to the monument. (For example, for the Great Pyramid, circle the number 12.) Instruct all the other players to cross off this larger value – any players who later complete that monument will only get the smaller value (in the Great Pyramid example, they'd get 6 points). These points will be tallied at the end of the game. Incomplete monuments are worth nothing at the end of the game.

4. Buy a Development

You may purchase up to 1 development per turn by spending coins and goods equal to (or above) its cost, printed on the score sheet. If you spend a type of goods, you must spend all of that type of goods, for the value listed under its peg, before you shift it to its leftmost position. No change is given, so any excess value is lost. Each player may purchase each development only once. When you buy a development, place a check mark next to it on your score sheet and circle the points listed next to it. These points will be tallied at the end of the game. For further details see Table 3 – Developments.

5. Discard Goods in Excess of 6 and Pass Dice

You may only keep 6 goods total. Each icon on the pegboard is considered one good. If you have more than 6, "discard" excess goods of your choice by moving your pegs to the left on the tracks. For example, if you had 5 wood and 2 stone (a total of 7 goods) you must discard 1 good. You may elect to discard either 1 stone or 1 wood by moving the respective peg one icon to the left. You only need to discard goods at the end of your turn.

After discarding any goods, pass the dice to the player on your left.

Game End

The game is over at the end of the round when:

• One player buys his 5th development, or
• Each monument has been built at least once by any of the players in the game.

Play until all players have had an equal number of turns. The last player should be the player to the right of the start player. (Remember the "Star" drawn by the start player.)

The players now tally up their scores. Add points for every development and monument. Players who bought Architecture add 1 point for every monument they built over the course of the game (for 0 to 7 points) and players who bought Empire add 1 point for every city they have (for 3 to 7 points). Players then subtract 1 point for every box checked in the Disasters section of their score sheet to determine their final score.

Winning the Game

Players compare their total points. The player with the highest score wins! In the event of a tie, award the game to the tied player whose remaining goods are worth the most.

Rules for 3-player Games

Use the normal rules above, but before play begins, each player should cross off the Hanging Gardens. This monument is not used in the 3-player game.

Rules for 2-player Games

Use the normal rules above, but before play begins, each player should cross off the Temple and the Great Pyramid. These monuments are not used in the 2-player game.

Rules for Solitaire Play

Use the normal rules above, with the following changes:

• Play for a total of 10 rounds and attempt to get the highest score you can.
• Use all of the monuments.
• Pestilence affects you if you roll it (unless you have Medicine).
• Religion prevents the effects of Revolt.
• Unlike the regular game, you are allowed to re-roll dice with skulls on them (like any other die result).

Trading Game

As a game variant, try the Trading Game which includes the following changes:

• After a player feeds his cities and resolves disasters but before he builds cities and monuments, he may trade goods and food with his opponents.
• During the Trade step, the active player may trade goods and food with the other players in any combination that both players agree to. For example, a player may trade 3 Wood for 2 Stone with one player, then trade 3 Stone for 2 Pottery with another player. The other players may only trade with the player whose turn it is. A player may not possess more of any good than his pegboard allows.

There's More!

Check out additional variations at the official website: http://www.rollthroughtheages.com

Table 1 – Dice Results

Result icon	Collect	Effect
Three sheaves of wheat	3 Food	Add 3 food to your peg board.
One vase	1 Good	Worth 1 good. Add multiple goods to separate rows, e.g., 1 = 1 wood; 2 = 1 wood + 1 stone; 3 = 1 wood + 1 stone + 1 pottery, and so on.
Skull and goods	2 Goods and 1 Skull	Worth 2 goods and 1 skull. After rolling all dice, if a player has more than 1 skull showing, a disaster will occur. Skulls do not accumulate from round to round.
Three people	3 Workers	Check off 3 boxes in cities and/or monuments of your choice.
Wheat and people	2 Food or 2 Workers	Feed 2 cities or check off 2 boxes to build cities and/or monuments.
Fist and coin	7 Coins	Worth 7 coins toward a development. Coins cannot be saved from round to round.

Table 2 – Disaster Results

Cause	Result	Effect	Affected By
No Food	Famine	Lose 1 point for each city you can't feed.	Food (1 food needed per city).
1 Skull	None	No effect.	Not applicable.
2 Skulls	Drought	Lose 2 points.	If you have Irrigation, you are unaffected.
3 Skulls	Pestilence	Your opponents lose 3 points.	Opponents with Medicine are unaffected.
4 Skulls	Invasion	Lose 4 points.	If you have completed the Great Wall monument, you are unaffected.
5+ Skulls	Revolt	Lose all your goods (including the ones you just collected).	If you have Religion, instead of losing all of your goods, your opponents lose all of their goods! Opponents with Religion are unaffected.

Table 3 – Developments

Each purchased development modifies the rules in the following ways:

Cost	Points	Development	Effect
10	2	Leadership	After your last roll, you may select 1 die and roll it again. You may re-roll a die with a skull on it. You must accept the new result.
10	2	Irrigation	Drought has no effect.
15	3	Agriculture	Collect 1 more food for each die containing food. This applies to the wheat-and-people result if you elect to collect food instead of workers.
15	3	Quarrying	Take 1 extra stone when you produce any stone on your turn.
15	3	Medicine	Whenever an opponent causes the Pestilence disaster to occur, you are unaffected.
20	4	Coinage	Collect 12 coins instead of 7 coins when you roll the fist-and-coin result on the die. Unused coins, as always, cannot be saved from turn to turn.
20	4	Caravans	During the Discard Step, you do not need to discard any goods.
20	6	Religion	When you roll a Revolt disaster, instead of losing all of your goods, your opponents must lose all of their goods!
30	6	Granaries	During the Buy Step, collect 4 coins (to put toward the purchase of a development) for every food you turn in. Unused coins, as always, cannot be saved from turn to turn.
30	6	Masonry	Collect 1 more worker for each die containing workers. This applies to the wheat-and-people result if you elect to collect workers instead of food.
40	6	Engineering	During the Build Step, check off 3 boxes on any city and/or monument for every stone you turn in. You can turn in as much (or as little) stone as you like to do this.
50	8	Architecture	Score 1 additional point for each monument you have completed at the end of the game.
60	8	Empire	At the end of the game, score 1 additional point for every city in your possession (including the cities you started with).