Session - Through The Ages

24th of January 2012 (Tuesday)

Game(s) Played:
Through The Ages



Session – Through The Ages

Player(s):
Mo (Grey)
Nitsuj (Orange)

With it being the holidays and all, Mo and I decided to try to play a full game of Through The Ages and this time we were determined to see it through to the finish.

The game is actually very enjoyable… really!

Mo picked Aristotle as his Leader (Errata: We played Technology Cards to include Wonders, Leaders & Tactics Cards) whilst I picked Julius Caesar which kind of made me go down the Military route. In a reverse of roles from our previous game, Mo was a lot more efficient by quickly upgrading to Age I Mines & Farms whilst I was stuck with quantity over quality for a long time. I managed to stay in the game through some Aggression, good Wonders and a peaceful revolution to Monarchy but Mo quickly laid down the groundwork and stole 2 Territories right out from under me whilst I was stuck trying to free my Workers, build more Mines to build more Temples to free more Workers (things tend to be a vicious cycle in this game).

This is just before Mo opened up a huge lead

This is me suffering from lack of Military Units

Mo never really changed Government until much later supplementing his Civil Actions with Wonders & Special Technologies

He quickly built a lead on me in terms of culture which I surprisingly clawed back with an Aggression Card (Winner gains Culture/Loser loses Culture), Territory Card (+Culture) and an Action Card (+Culture) to take advantage of his lack of Military at that point in time, enough to actually tie us at the 75 Point mark. I did manage to finally get my efficiency back up to scratch with Age II mines & farms but now got stuck with trying to build both more mines and better labs at the same time. It didn’t help matters that Mo’s lead was now obscene with him having picked up James Cook (Territories generate 2 Culture) and I didn’t really get to use Napoleon Bonaparte as nobody played any more Territory Cards and I didn’t get any good Aggression/War Cards either.

My only saving grace was the Fast Food Chains Wonder Card which gave me a whopping 28 Culture shot in the arm but alas even that was not enough at the end as Mo finished the game with a 30 Point lead ahead of me having successfully looped the Culture Track.

Fast Food Chains = Culture Points… Fast Food = Modern Culture?

Time Taken: 240 minutes

Results Of Game
Winna – Mo (210 Points)
2nd – Nitsuj (180 Points)

Comments:
Nitsuj
"I think I’m ready to write the review for Through The Ages, but it is still a really great game and I’m looking forward to playing it again as does Mo. It feels like you’re always balancing on a tight rope and always trying to push an advantage over your opponent which feels great when you manage to pull it off."

Rating: 9/10