Roll Through the Ages

Building a civilization with the roll of a die in 30 minutes or less is the theme behind this great game.  Make use of workers to help build more cities to expand your empire. Collect and trade goods to discover such developments as irrigation and religion.  Create wondrous monuments like the Hanging Gardens of the Great Wall of China.  But don't forget to feed your people are bad things could happen.  And always be prepared for that inevitable disaster that may come your way.



Object of the Game

Become the most advanced and prestigious civilization by accumulating cities, monuments, and developments.  Avoid the devastation of disasters.  And you will score the most points and win the game.


Components / Set-up

This is a little game with a lot packed into it.  You start with the four beautiful wooden peg boards that are used for keeping track of your goods, and of course the food for your people.  Four of these are included in the game.  To go along with the pegboard there are also 24 wooden pegs.

Players take one pegboard and six pegs.  They set their food to three on the pegboard and the five good pegs to zero.


Each player will also need one of the score sheets and a pencil.  The start player is chosen randomly and they are given three of the seven wooden dice.  This player should put a star on their score sheet that will help determine who takes the last turn of the game. 

Game Play

The game plays over a series of rounds.  Each round the players each take a turn.  After each player has taken their turn a new round begins.

A player may do all of the following steps their round, if possible.

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

Players roll one die for each city they posses.  After rolling any dice that have a skull are set aside.  The remaining dice may be kept or re-rolled.  After the re-roll, skull dice are again set aside.  Now the player may re-roll any of the dice, including the ones kept from the first roll, that do not have skulls.  After the third roll, the results must be kept.



Collect Goods:  Players add goods, one at a time, to any goods that they may already have by moving the peg one position to the right for each good, starting from the bottom row, Wood.  Then they proceed upwards to Stone, Pottery, Cloth, and Spearheads. If the player earned more than 5 goods this turn, add the additional goods, starting at the bottom row and proceeding upwards as before.

Collect Food:  Advance your food peg 1 position for each food symbol on your food dice.  Two food or two workers are collected on the dice marked with the wheat / people symbol.  If you don't have room on the pegboard you don't collect extra food.


2.  Feed Cities and Resolve Disasters

Feed Cities:  Each city (each die rolled) requires the player to pay one food.  You must subtract one food, on the 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 one 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.  Two Skulls result in a Drought.  Droughts cause you to lose 2 points.  If you have Irrigation, you are not affected.  3 skulls cause Pestilence and you opponents to lose 3 points.   If they have Medicine they are not affected.  4 skulls result in Invasion and you lose 4 points.  If you have completed the Great Wall monument you are not affected. 5+ skulls result in Revolt and you lose all your goods, including the ones just collected.  If you have Religion, instead of losing all your goods, your opponents lose all their goods.  If they also have Religion they are not affected.

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 it is built.  Circle the die icon to remind you.  The next turn you will begin with one more die.  You can build up to four new cities (total 7) giving you a maximum of 7 dice per turn. 

If you the first player to check off all the boxes for a given monument, circle the larger number of points next to the monument.  Instruct all the other players to cross off this larger value - any players who later complete the monument will only get the smaller value.  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

A player may purchase one development per turn by spending coins and goods equal to or above the cost shown 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 once.  When you buy the development, place a check mark next to it on your score sheet and circle the points listed next to it.  These points are tallied at the end of the game.

5.  Discard Goods in Excess of 6 and pass the Dice

You may only keep a total of 6 goods.  Each icon on the pegboard is considered one good. 

If you have more than six, "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 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 goods, pass the dice to the player on your left.  If you purchase the Caravans development then you will not need to discard any goods.

Game End

The game is over at the end of a 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 continues until all players have had an equal number of turns.  The last player should be the player to the right of the start player.  Players should now tally up their scores. Points are added for every completed monument and for every development.  Players who bought architecture should add 1 point for every monument.  Players who built empire should add one point for every city they have.  Players subtract 1 point for every box checked in the Disasters section of their score sheet.  All of this is added and subtracted to determine the players' final score.


The player who has the most points wins the game.  If there is a tie the player with the most remaining goods is the winner.

Rules for 3 player Games

The normal rules are used, but before playing the players should cross off the Hanging Gardens as it is not used in the three player game.

Rules for 2 Player Games

The normal rues are used, but before playing the players should cross off the Temple and the Great Pyramid. These monuments are not used in the two player game.



My Thoughts

The first thing that your notice about this game, are the quality components.  The dice, the peg boards, and the pegs are made of a quality wood that will stand up to years of use.  You only get one pad of score sheets that will eventually go away.  But there is a downloadable expansion that you can print-out.  I have also seen someone laminate a few of the sheets so you can reuse them over and over.  This is a great idea and certainly one I will be copying soon.

Game play reminds me of Yahtzee, but in a good way.  It's quick, light, easy to play and easy to learn.  This makes the game accessible to non-gamers, younger players, and hobby gamers.  The dice are random and thus the game involves a lot of luck.  Careful planning, allocation of resources, wise use of bonuses, and avoidance of disasters (if possible) had a fair amount of strategy.  These elements appeal to hobby gamers looking for a filler game, week night game or a game to play with the family. 


The game may be short but at the end of the game, as you look at your score sheet and peg board you really do feel like you have built a mini-civilization.  Every time Roll Through the Ages comes to the table there is always a smile on everyone's face.  It's just fun rolling dice, agonizing over the skulls, and then realizing you rolled three skulls so the disaster affects your opponents and not you (yeah!).  Plus the skulls still give you two goods so they aren't horrible. 


The game also plays well as a solitaire.  This is rarely a selling point for me since my husband is always willing to play games but during the summer when I have a lot more free time it is nice to pull out a game, challenge myself, and try to beat my best score.  There is a lot of game packed into this little box and I recommend it to just about anyone.

Quick Stats

Designer:  Matt Leacok
Artist: Marko Fiedler, Monte Moore, Paul Niemeyer, Claus Stephan

Players: 1-4

Publishers:  Gen-X Games, Gryphon Games, Korea Boardgames, New Games Order, LLC, Pegasus Spiele, Quined White Goblin Games, Swan Panasia Co., Ltd., White Goblin Games

Time: 30 Min

Ages: 8 and up

Mechanics: Dice Rolling, Push Your Luck, Paper and Pencil


Photo Credits:(from www.boardgamegeek.com in order of appearance) my eye (earache),surmik(surmik), surmik(surmik), Ender Wiggins (EndersGame), Ender Wiggins (EndersGame), Henk Rolleman (henk.rolleman), Henk Rolleman (henk.rolleman), Russell Howell (Left for BGG) (badgeguy), Laszlo Molnar (lacxox)

Please note that I didn't take the photos in the blog, I thank all the wonderful gamers out there who care so much about board games that they take such wonderful pictures.