Post by Gilvan Blight on Apr 11, 2012 8:28:00 GMT -5
Roll Through The Ages: The Bronze Age is an easy to learn empire building game. Taking on the role of a Bronze Age empire, the players use dice to advance their civilization through building architectural wonders and technological developments. It plays 1-4 players and only takes about half an hour to play. Roll Through The Ages was designed by Matt Leacock (of Pandemic fame) and was released in 2008 by Griffon Games.
The small, easy to store, box contains four wooden peg boards, pegs, eight dice, a set of rules, and a thick scoring pad. Everything is in full colour, including the instructions, and the wooden components are top notch. The instructions are very clear with plenty of examples.
Each turn the player rolls a number of dice based on how many cities they have. The dice determine what happens that year for the player. Everything except a disaster can be re-rolled up to twice (in traditional Yahtzee style). The final outcome will determine how much food is harvested, how many goods are created, how much money there is to spend and how many workers are available. After feeding their people and dealing with any horrible disasters the player then allocates his workers. They can be used to build new cities (giving more dice) or to build monuments. Lastly a player decides if they want to learn any technological developments which cost money and give specific in game bonuses.
The game ends the round that all of the architectural wonders are built or when one player completes five developments. At this point players add up their points for wonders and developments and then subtract points for disasters. The player with the most points wins.
Overall this game is very quick to pick up and understand. It takes almost no time to teach someone how to play. Even though the rules are simple that doesn't mean the strategy matches. There are quite a few options available to players and there isn't one right way to play to win. The quick play time and ease of explanation means this one will hit the table time and time again.
Originally posted at examiner.com:
www.examiner.com/board-games-in-toronto/roll-through-the-ages-quick-simple-and-best-of-all-fun-review
The small, easy to store, box contains four wooden peg boards, pegs, eight dice, a set of rules, and a thick scoring pad. Everything is in full colour, including the instructions, and the wooden components are top notch. The instructions are very clear with plenty of examples.
Each turn the player rolls a number of dice based on how many cities they have. The dice determine what happens that year for the player. Everything except a disaster can be re-rolled up to twice (in traditional Yahtzee style). The final outcome will determine how much food is harvested, how many goods are created, how much money there is to spend and how many workers are available. After feeding their people and dealing with any horrible disasters the player then allocates his workers. They can be used to build new cities (giving more dice) or to build monuments. Lastly a player decides if they want to learn any technological developments which cost money and give specific in game bonuses.
The game ends the round that all of the architectural wonders are built or when one player completes five developments. At this point players add up their points for wonders and developments and then subtract points for disasters. The player with the most points wins.
Overall this game is very quick to pick up and understand. It takes almost no time to teach someone how to play. Even though the rules are simple that doesn't mean the strategy matches. There are quite a few options available to players and there isn't one right way to play to win. The quick play time and ease of explanation means this one will hit the table time and time again.
Originally posted at examiner.com:
www.examiner.com/board-games-in-toronto/roll-through-the-ages-quick-simple-and-best-of-all-fun-review