Through the Ages - 2nd Edition

Unofficial FAQ
Version 14 - 5 January 2017

Do not read this FAQ.

Yes, you read that correctly. The vast majority of the rulings addressed in this FAQ can be answered with
a careful reading of the rules and cards--so there's little need to read this FAQ in order to understand the
game. This is true even of the game's finer points: yes, the rulebook and handbook are that well written.

Rather, this FAQ is intended as a reference. If there's a particular card whose use you don't fully under-
stand, or if there's confusion about a specific phase of the game, then this FAQ may prove helpful to you.

The bulk of the issues addressed in this FAQ have been asked and answered on BoardGameGeek.com, an
excellent resource should you ever have any further rule questions.

Entries added or significantly altered since the previous version have been marked with an asterisk.

Specific Cards (See also page 12 of the Through the Ages "Code of Laws" Rulebook.)
Action Cards
Patriotism: This card gives you the indicated amount of resources for use in building military
units. It does not give you that many resources toward every military unit you build: if a Patriot-
ism Action Card gives you four resources for building military units, and you expend three re-
sources to build a Swordsmen, you will have one resource left toward building a second military
unit. After playing this card, you must use these resources first whenever building military units.
And after playing Patriotism, your next Military Action this turn must be this virtual Military
Action.
Frugality: You can use other discounts--such as that provided by Moses--when you increase your
population and you will still receive this rebate.

Aggressions
Annex: The aggressor chooses which of the victim's colonies he takes.
Plunder: The total number of Resources and Food you receive may not exceed the specified
number. (E.g., "up to 5 Food and/or Resources" means up to five things, possibly 3 Food and 2
Resources--it does not mean take 5 Food and 5 Resources.) No blue markers are exchanged
between players. You cannot gain more than the victim has to lose.
Raid: To destroy a building means to move a Worker to the Worker Pool (not to the yellow
Bank).
 p. 2

Events
Civil Unrest: This card and "Immigration" are the only Event cards which don't require the tie-
breaking procedure to cancel ties.
Development of Civilization: You may combine this card's discount for increasing population
with, for instance, that of Moses which would let you pay -2 Food. It does not cost a Civil Action.
Development of Civilization: If you conduct a Revolution using the "Develop a Technology"
option, you'll save one science point but you'll still lose all of your Civil Actions during your next
player turn (and have only your Military Actions available to take).
Economic Progress: Your civilization conducts these Production steps even if you currently have
insufficient Unused Workers to match all of your Discontent Workers and would normally be
subject to an Uprising.
Economic Progress: This event does combine with Transcontinental Railroad, as both cards use
the word "produces".
Immigration: This card and "Civil Unrest" are the only Event cards which don't require the tie-
breaking procedure to cancel ties. Note that the maximum number of Happy Faces a civilization
can have is eight, even if more Happy Faces are in play.
Impact of Agriculture: The amount of Culture scored equals the total amount of Food produc-
tion (ignoring Consumption). If you produce 6 Food per turn, and your Consumption is 2 Food,
then you score a base of 6 Culture, plus you will receive an additional 4 bonus Culture points (be-
cause 6 is greater than 2), for a total of 10 Culture.
Impact of Architecture: This card is referring to built Urban Buildings, not to the Technology
cards themselves. (And remember that Age-A Urban Builders are considered to be Level 0.) If
you have two Workers on Organized Religion (Age II) and one Worker on Multimedia (Age III)
and no Workers on Drama (Age I), these would contribute 2x2 + 1x3 + 0x1 = 7 Culture.
Impact of Competition: This card refers to built Arenas and to built Military Units, not to the
Technology cards themselves.
Impact of Industry: This card refers to the total amount of Resource production from your
Mines, ignoring Corruption.
Impact of Industry: The benefit of the Transcontinental Railroad does contribute to this event,
as does the International Trade Agreement Pact. (The effects of Wonders and Leaders always
count--if otherwise applicable--when evaluating the Age-III Impact events.)
Impact of Industry: Bill Gates does not contribute to the Culture produced, because it is the
Labs that he affects, not the Mines.
Impact of Population: Count the number of yellow markers that are not in your Population
Bank. Subtract from this the number of Discontent Workers that you have. This is your number of
Content Workers. Finally, subtract ten from this number to determine how much Culture you get.
Impact of Science: Count all sources of Science production that contribute to your per-round
Science marker position, including Leaders and Wonders and Colonies but never Action Cards.
(Winston Churchill does not affect this Event.) In a three-player game, the player with the most
Science production will score 14 Culture points; the player with the second-most Science produc-
tion will score 7 Culture points; the third player will score nothing. Ties are broken in the usual
way, with the currently moving player considered to have more Science production than any
player he is tied with; then the next-moving player, etc. If this Event is evaluated at the end of the
game, the Starting Player is treated as the currently moving player.
 p. 3

Impact of Strength: Count all sources of Military Strength that contribute to your Military
Strength marker position, including Tactics and Wonders and Leaders and Special Technologies
and Urban Buildings. In a two-player game, the player with the higher Military Strength will
score 10 Culture points; the other player will score nothing. Ties are broken in the usual way,
with the currently moving player considered to have more Military Strength than any player he is
tied with, etc. If this Event is evaluated at the end of the game, the Starting Player is treated as the
currently moving player.
Impact of Technology: Only the Technology cards that are in play count (including any Age-III
Government card). Any yellow cubes on or not on the Technology cards have no effect on the
Culture scored by this event.
Impact of Technology: The reference on this card to Level-II Technology cards is for when you
are playing the simplified shortened version of the game described in the Handbook--Your First
Game rules. Ignore this parenthetical text otherwise.
Impact of Variety: Culture is awarded for each type of built Urban Building and each type of
built Military Unit. Having zero Warriors and three Swordsmen and one Riflemen and zero Mod-
ern Infantry gains you two Culture, for having at least one Military Unit of the Infantry type. The
same thing goes for Urban Buildings: two Culture for having any built Labs, two Culture for hav-
ing any built Temples, etc.
Independence Declaration: In case it's not frightfully obvious, it is the weakest civilization (the
civilization with the lowest current Military Strength) that chooses which Colony to lose.
International Agreement: The usual rules for drafting cards apply. If the current player is the
one drafting cards during the Politics Phase, any Action cards that he now draws can be used
during the ensuing Action Phase. After the strongest civilization drafts all of the cards it wishes,
the player whose turn it is replenishes the Card Row but does not sweep any cards from the first
slots. If this event triggers the end of an Age, proceed as if the Age had ended at the start of this
player's turn (except that the player does not get another Politics phase). The International Agree-
ment event will initiate the final round if it triggers Age-IV during the Starting Player's turn. The
strongest player can take advantage of this event even during the final round of play.
National Pride: If two players are tied for Culture, you break this tie to determine who this Event
applies to by using the normal tie-breaking procedure: The person whose turn it is is considered
to have the higher Culture. Or if the current player isn't one of the tied players, then the tied play-
er whose turn comes earliest is considered to be the player with the higher Culture.
Politics of Strength: When evaluating this event during Age IV, the Civilization with the highest
Military Strength gains 5 Culture, and the Civilization with the lowest Military Strength loses 3
Culture. (Use the standard tie-breaking procedure.) The phrase "game-ending Age" is used so that
this card can be properly understood when playing the shortened version of the game that is de-
scribed in the Handbook--Your First Game; in normal games, the game-ending Age is Age IV.
Raiders: Both civilizations lose two things--either 2 Food, or 2 Resources, or 1 Food plus 1 Re-
source (assuming, that is, that they have at least two things to be lost). The lack of a "2" immedi-
ately in front of the Resource symbol should not be interpreted to say otherwise. When playing a
two-player game, only the civilization with the weaker Military Strength suffers this loss. If you
are in a 3- or 4-player game and there is a tie for, say, the second-weakest civilization, you break
that tie in the usual way.
 p. 4

Ravages of Time: Homer's Happy Face, if attached to the chosen Wonder, still continues to con-
tribute to your civilization. Destroyed Wonders do count as completed Wonders for all purposes:
they still add to your Civil Action cost when drafting new Wonders, they score with the Impact of
Wonder event, other players can benefit from them with the International Tourism Pact, etc.
Terrorism: The player with the fewest Culture points chooses which Urban Buildings are de-
stroyed. (And remember that Workers from destroyed buildings are moved to the Worker Pool,
not to the yellow bank.)
Terrorism: If two players are tied for the fewest Culture points, then the current player (or the
next player to move, if the current player isn't one of the tied players) is considered to have more
Culture points.
Uncertain Borders: The gained yellow token goes into the lucky recipient's yellow bank.

Leaders
Albert Einstein: Your "best Lab or Library" refers to that Technology Card that is from the latest
Age, e.g., the highest Age Level. If you have two Age-I Alchemy Labs and two Age-II Journal-
ism Libraries, you gain 2 Science per turn (for one of the two Age-II Journalism Libraries).
Bill Gates: When paying Resource costs with blue markers located on your Lab cards, you mark
any Resource "change" given back by placing blue markers on your Mine cards or on your other
Lab cards. Blue markers on Labs are worth a number of resources equal to the level of the Lab.
Bill Gates: His ability doesn't contribute to the Impact of Industry event, because with Bill Gates
it is the Labs that produce the resources, not the Mines.
Bill Gates: His ability does contribute to the Impact of Balance event, because both cards use the
word "produces" to refer to the same end-of-turn Production process.
Bill Gates: When he leaves play (or at the end of the game), the amount of Culture he produces is
equal to the per-turn production increase he currently provides--not to the total amount of addi-
tional production he has produced across the game. Any blue markers left on your Labs may con-
tinue to be used until the end of the game, (but you may make downward change to lower Labs
only with those blue markers that're already present on your Labs).
Charlie Chaplin: Even if you have three Workers on the Age-III Movies Technology card,
Charlie Chaplin doubles the Culture production of just one of those Movies, making it produce
eight Culture instead of the usual four.
Frederick Barbarossa: If you make use of Barbarossa's ability and use a Military Action to
increase your population, you must then immediately build a new Military Unit out of that just-
created Worker (which you do without expending a separate Civil Action). If you cannot or do
not wish to build a new Military Unit with this new Worker, then you cannot use this special abil-
ity of Barbarossa. Nor can you use Barbarossa to create a new Military Unit for one fewer Re-
source by using a previously existing Worker: Barbarossa's ability must either be used totally, or
not at all. You can, however, use his ability more than once per player turn.
Frederick Barbarossa: The Frugality Action Card does not combine in any way with Barbaros-
sa's ability. Barbarossa's ability cannot be initiated through any Action Card.
Genghis Khan: His Culture bonus does not apply toward the per-turn Culture rate. It's too
ephemeral, for it depends turn-by-turn upon what other civilizations do.
Genghis Khan: His ability to win ties applies only to his ability to score Culture points.
Genghis Khan: In a two-player game, read the text as if it said, "the stronger".
 p. 5

Hammurabi: If you use a Military Action as a Civil Action to replace Hammurabi as a Leader,
you will gain a Civil Action back, not a Military Action.
Hammurabi: It is permissible, with Hammurabi in play, to declare a Revolution, and then on the
same turn to draw a Leader from the first section of the card row (for this would cost zero Civil
Actions), and then to use a Military Action as a Civil Action to replace Hammurabi with the
newly drawn Leader, and then to gain that Civil Action back (for replacing a Leader) and take
another Civil Action with it.
Homer: His ability to provide an extra Resource for building Military Unit is available only
while he is in play. Should you replace him mid-turn, that extra Resource is no longer available.
Homer: He must currently be in play in order to "replace him". If he is killed by other means,
such as the end of Age I, it is then too late to place him under a Wonder. "Replace" refers specifi-
cally to the process of playing a new Leader while another Leader is currently in play.
Homer: He provides a Happy Face both while he is in play and also later when he is attached to a
completed Wonder.
Homer: If a Wonder he is attached to is flipped over due to the Ravages of Time, the Happy Face
continues to count until the end of the game. (E.g., flip the Wonder, but not Homer.)
Isaac Newton: He gains a Civil Action back for the player even if the player declares a Revolu-
tion, and even if the new Government reduces the number of Civil Actions when compared to the
previous Government.
Isaac Newton: You get the Civil Action back even if you develop a Technology through the ef-
fect of another card, such as the Breakthrough Action Card.
James Cook: His Culture benefit is based on all of the Colonies you currently possess, even
those acquired before Cook was put into play. Having one Colony grants you 2 Culture points per
turn; having two Colonies grant you 3 Culture points per turn; and so on.
James Cook: His benefit does apply toward your civilization's per-turn Culture rate.
J. S. Bach: You do not receive any Resource rebate if the Resource cost of the new Theater is
lower than the Resource cost of the original Urban Building. And you still must abide by your
Government's maximum Urban Building limit.
J. S. Bach: You can combine Bach's ability with the Efficient Upgrade Action card; doing so
would cost you a total of one Civil Action.
Joan of Arc: "Temples" refer to built Temples only (i.e., it is referring to Workers that are locat-
ed on Temple Technology cards).
Joan of Arc: The player may not show the top Event card to other players. Whether she may an-
nounce the name of it, or deceive others about it, or must keep this information to herself, are
things that should be decided among your own playing group.
Joan of Arc: St. Peter's Basilica can increase the amount of Military Strength Joan provides,
because the Basilica may add a Happy Face to your Government card (if it has its own Happy
Face), and to each of your Temple Workers. This can yield more than eight Happy Faces, and the
corresponding number of additional Military Strength points.
Julius Caesar: Julius even allows you to conduct, say, two Aggressions against the same Civili-
zation on the same turn (although only once per game, and you must pay the Military Action
costs of both Aggressions).
 p. 6

Maximillian Robespierre: You must have all of your Military Actions available in order to use
his Revolution ability. Any additional Military Actions gained through the Revolution are gained
"used". Any additional Civil Actions are gained "unused". After conducting this kind of a Revo-
lution, it is possible for the player to gain additional Military Actions and use them during that
turn, for instance by playing Warfare, Strategy or Military Theory, or by completing the Kremlin.
Maximillian Robespierre: If you use a Breakthrough Action Card to declare a Revolution with
Robespierre in play, you pay all of your Military Actions and expend no Civil Actions, not even
for playing the Breakthrough Action Card. The additional Military Action granted by the Patriot-
ism Action Card does not get lost during a Revolution with Robespierre: you may still spend it
during your Action Phase.
Michelangelo: Although a civilization as a whole is limited to a maximum of eight Happy Faces,
the maximum per-turn Culture benefit of Michelangelo can be greater than eight.
Michelangelo: St. Peter's Basilica does contribute to the amount of Culture which Michelangelo
scores each turn, which can exceed eight Culture points per turn.
Sid Meier: If you have two Age-III Computers Workers, they produce a combined 8 Science and
6 Culture per turn.
Sid Meier: His ability does affect the Culture produced by the Internet Wonder.
William Shakespeare: You must have a built Library and/or a built Theater to make use of the
Resource and Science discounts. Likewise, the "Library-Theater" pairs it speaks about must be
built Libraries and built Theaters. (The Resource and Science discounts do not require pairs of
Urban Buildings--only that the player have at least one of the specified Urban Building type.)
Winston Churchill: You get the choice of Culture or of Science-plus-Resources on every turn
Churchill is in play; his ability is not a once-per-game action. This once-a-turn choice, and the use
of his benefits, can occur at any time during your Action phase. (You could even, if you so wish,
choose the Science-plus-Resources option and then decide not to use them--with the goal, say, of
keeping your Culture total lower in an effort to avoid being hit by the Terrorism Event.) His abili-
ty to possibly produce Culture--because it is optional--does not contribute to your civilization's
per-turn Culture rating.

Military Units
Air Force: You are allowed to have at most one Air Force unit in any Army. And each Air Force
unit can belong to at most one Army. And regardless of whether any given Air Force unit is part
of any Army, its Military Strength of five always contributes to the Military Strength of its Civili-
zation.
 p. 7

Pacts
Acceptance of Supremacy: Civilization A produces an additional Resource even if Civilization
B produces no Resources.
Acceptance of Supremacy/International Trade Agreement: The one extra Resource of produc-
tion causes an additional blue marker to be placed on your Bronze Technology card during Pro-
duction. It does not permit you to, instead, take the blue marker of production from an Iron mine
and nudge it up onto a Coal Technology card. (As the rules suggest, a good way to remember this
extra production is to place a red marker on the Bronze Technology card.)
International Trade Agreement: This card does affect the Good Harvest, New Deposits, Eco-
nomic Progress, Impact of Balance, Impact of Agriculture, and Impact of Industry events, for all
of these cards use the term "produces," which refers to a specific end-of-turn step.
Loss of Sovereignty: "Attack" means both Aggressions and Wars.
Loss of Sovereignty: This Pact remains in full force even should Civilization B be producing less
than 2 Culture points per turn.
Promise of Military Protection: Even if Civilization B currently has a zero-per-turn Culture
production rate, the other two effects (+1 Culture for Civilization A, and +4 Military Strength for
Civilization B) still apply.
Scientific Cooperation: If a player wishes to play a Technology card which requires 6 Science to
place, that player pays 4 Science and his partner pays 1 Science. Should either player have insuf-
ficient Science points, the Technology card may not be played.
Trade Routes Agreement: This Resource-for-Food and Food-for-Resource ability, if it is used,
must be used during the Action Phase. It cannot be used to pay Consumption or Corruption. And
it can only be used once per turn.

Territories (Colonies)
Strategic Territory: In Age IV, the winner of this colony cannot draw Military Cards, as there is
no Military deck. There is no compensation for this lost benefit: the winner still gains it as a Col-
ony toward the "Impact of Colonies" Event however, plus some additional Military Strength.

Wars
War over Culture: The victim loses Culture, and the victor gains Culture--but only as much Cul-
ture as the victim loses, keeping in mind that the victim's Culture cannot go negative.
War over Culture: The five initial Culture points must also come from the victim. If the victim
has, say, only three Culture points, then three is all the Culture that the victor gains.
War over Technology: As long as you win enough Science points you can always choose to take
some or all of them in blue Special Technologies. Exception: you are not allowed to choose a
Technology card which you currently have in play or in your hand. The attacker cannot take more
Science points than the loser has to lose (although the Science points he has available to lose also
includes the Science costs of any blue Special Technology cards he has in play which the attacker
does not have); and the loser indeed does lose actual Science points (as well as virtual Science
points in the form of stolen Special Technologies).
War over Territory: If there are insufficient yellow markers in the victim's yellow bank, then
the victor takes only what is available.
 p. 8

Wonders
Fast Food Chains: As with the other Age-III Wonders, this card gives Culture points only for
your own units, urban buildings, mines, and farms, even though it doesn't explicitly say "your".
First Space Flight: This Wonder refers to Technology cards, not to the Workers on them.
Great Wall: If a player also has Genghis Khan in play, and is letting some of his Infantry be con-
sidered Cavalry for purpose of Tactics, those Infantry also earn for that player the +1 Military
Strength of the Great Wall because the Infantry are being consider Infantry only for the purpose
of Tactics, not for the purpose of Wonders.
Great Wall: The additional Military Strength due to Infantry and Artillery does not count when
bidding for Colonies.
Hollywood: If you also have Charlie Chaplin in play when you complete this Wonder, your sin-
gle best Theater (i.e., the Theater from the latest Age) will contribute Culture equal to four times
its base rate.
Hollywood: Effects that modify the Culture production of your Theaters and Libraries do count
toward the amount of Culture produced--this includes the effects of J.S. Bach, William Shake-
speare, and Charlie Chaplin.
Internet: Sid Meier does affect the amount of Culture which the Internet Wonder gives you, as
do William Shakespeare, J.S. Bach, Charlie Chaplin, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein.
Library of Alexandria: If you lose the Library due to the Ravages of Time event, your hand lim-
its will decrease. This doesn't mean you must immediately discard the excess cards. Rather, any
Military Card excess will be handled normally during the End-of-Turn sequence, and any Civil
Card excess will simply prevent you from drafting additional cards into your hand from the Card
Row until such time as you fall below your Civil Card hand limit. (The only time Civil Cards are
ever discarded is when they become Obsolete during an End-of-Age process.)
Ocean Liner Service: The population gain this Wonder gives (moving a yellow marker from the
yellow bank to the Worker Pool) costs no food and no Civil Actions.
St. Peter's Basilica: This Wonder does take into account Joan of Arc's effect on Temples.
Taj Mahal: You have to replace a Leader to get this drafting discount; simply playing a Leader
(without replacing one) does not earn you this discount.
Taj Mahal: The discount for taking this Wonder from the card row can be decreased to zero (but
not to negative) Civil Actions.
Transcontinental Railroad: This Wonder doubles the production of one Worker who is on the
best Mine Technology card that has Worker(s) on it. The Worker is the Mine; the Technology
card is not the Mine.
Transcontinental Railroad: If you also have Bill Gates in play, remember that Labs are not
Mines. Should you have only one Mine, an Iron one, and one Lab, Computers, it is the Iron Mine
that produces double the Resources.
Transcontinental Railroad: This benefit does contribute toward Impact of Industry.
 p. 9

Phases of the Game

Card Row
Adding Cards: Except during the Age of Antiquity, the Card Row is adjusted at the start of every
player's turn: any cards in the leftmost 1, 2, or 3 slots (depending on the number of players) are
discarded; all of the remaining cards are slid to the left to fill in every empty slot; and new cards
are dealt into the rightmost empty slots (from left to right). Note: You never discard any cards
that are to the right of the leftmost 1, 2, or 3 slots, even if some or all of those leftmost slots are
empty.
First Round--Antiquity: During the Age of Antiquity (which consists of one round), the only
things players do is draft cards from the Card Row (using a reduced number of Civil Actions) and
follow the End of Turn sequence (skipping the "draw Military Cards" step). The Card Row is not
adjusted between player turns during the Age of Antiquity. After every player has taken this one
turn of Antiquity, the Card Row is adjusted: any cards in the leftmost 1, 2, or 3 slots are discard-
ed; all cards are slid left; and the rightmost empty slots are filled in with Age of Antiquity Civil
Cards, from left to right. (Should there not be enough Age-of-Antiquity Civil Cards left to fill in
every empty slot, use Age-I Civil cards to fill in the remainder.) Once the Card Row is replen-
ished in this way, Age-I begins: this means that the remainder of the Age-of-Antiquity Civil deck
is discarded, and that the Age-I Civil deck and Age-I Military deck are made ready. The Starting
Player now takes his second turn, it now being Age I: from this point forward, all players have
their full complement of Civil and Military Actions.

Politics Phase
Declaring War: It is permissible to declare a War in Age IV, but it will only be evaluated if the
attacking player has another turn coming.
Colonies: The permanent effects of a Colony (those listed along the bottom of the card) take
effect before the one-time effects of the Colony (those listed in the center of the card).
End of Age: Antiquated Events and Antiquated Colonies are never removed from the Future-,
Current-, or Past-Events stacks.
Military Deck Exhausted during a Colony Event: If a player wins the bid for a Strategic Terri-
tory colony (which grants him three or five Military Cards), and if there are insufficient Military
Cards left in the draw pile for him to draw all of the indicated number of cards, then the Military
discard stack (for the current Age only) is reshuffled and placed underneath the as-yet undrawn
cards. Note that any Bonus Military cards discarded to complete the player's bid for this Colony
are discarded before the Military Card draw, and are thus shuffled in with the other discards.
Multiple Attacks: More than one player may attack (declare War on, or conduct an Aggression
against) the same Civilization in a given round (e.g., the red, green, and blue civilizations may all
declare War on the yellow civilization during a single round of play). It is also possible for a sin-
gle player to both resolve a War and conduct an Aggression against the same player during a sin-
gle turn (assuming the War was declared during the attacking player's previous Politics Phase).
Pacts Cancelled by Attacks: The only Pacts that will be canceled by one civilization attacking
the other (either by Aggression or by declaring War) are the "Promise of Military Protection" and
the "Military Pact" Pacts. The Military Strength given by either Pact will not affect any War or
Aggression which is declared between the two civilizations--for the Pact is cancelled immediate-
ly. However, should either Pact be accepted after a Declaration of a War is made but before that
War is resolved, any Military Strength given by that Pact would apply to that War (even a War
between the two partnering civilizations).
 p. 10

Pacts which Prevent Attacks: Only the "Peace Treaty", "Loss of Sovereignty", and "Acceptance
of Supremacy" Pacts prevent the players from attacking (by Aggression or by War) each other.
Skipping: Yes, you can decide to skip the Politics Phase during your turn.
Ties during Wars and Aggressions: If the Military Strengths of two warring Civilizations are
tied at the moment of execution of a War, then there is no effect from that War. The same goes for
Aggressions.
Weakest/Strongest Civilization(s): When this phrase occurs, it is referring only to Military
Strength, not to Culture or Population or anything else.

Action Phase
Action Cards: All Action Cards cost one Civil Action to play. (Exception: when you use a Break-
through to perform a Revolution, you pay all of your Civil Actions [or all of your Military Ac-
tions if you have Maximillian Robespierre in play], but you do not pay the Civil Action cost of
the Action Card). There are four different types of Action Cards:
Those that simply give Food, Resources, Science, or Culture: Stockpile, Cultural Heri-
tage, Reserves, Revolutionary Idea, and Endowment for the Arts.
Those that give you Resources toward a specific purpose, but which don't grant you any
free Actions: Wave of Nationalism and Military Build-Up.
Those that include a specific Civil Action (for which you are not charged a separate Civil
Action--the action coming free when you play the Action Card): Frugality, Rich Land,
Engineering Genius, Urban Grown, Breakthrough, and Efficient Upgrade. When
you play this Action card, you take the accompanying free Civil Action immediately.
Patriotism, which grants you extra Resources for building and upgrading Military Units,
and which grants you an extra--and separate--Military Action.
Blue Markers: Regardless of whether or not you have Workers on any of your Mines, if you
have a blue marker on Coal (3 resources / marker), and do not have the Iron technology (2 re-
sources / marker), and if you have to pay 1 resource for something, then you remove the 1 blue
marker from Coal and place 2 blue markers on Bronze (1 resource / marker). (If your blue bank is
totally empty, you shift the blue marker onto the Bronze Mine and you lose the second resource.)
Blue Markers: If an Event or yellow Action Card gives you three resources, you can place a blue
marker on Coal even if you have no Workers on Coal. You can never, however, consolidate re-
sources onto higher cards--e.g., if you have three blue markers on Bronze, you can never remove
them and place one blue marker on Coal.
Engineering Genius Action Card and Engineering Special Technology: No, you cannot com-
bine these two cards to build more than one Stage of a Wonder for a single Civil Action. Either
use the Resource discount from the Action Card and build just one Stage of the Wonder--or use
the Engineering card to build up to four Stages with a single Civil Action but without any Re-
source discount.
Extra Blue and Yellow Markers: If during play you gain blue or yellow markers, and at some
point fill up all of the designated spots in your blue or yellow bank, any additional blue and yel-
low markers are simply placed in the rightmost section of the appropriate bank, where they are
used normally (e.g., in the same way that other markers in that rightmost section are used).
Government Drafting: You are not allowed to draft two Government Technology cards with
identical names, but you are otherwise allowed to draft more than one Government Technology
card, even two or more Government Technology cards from the same Age.
 p. 11

Identical Action Cards: You are permitted to draft and hold multiple copies of identical Action
cards. Action cards are not Technology cards, which are the only cards that are restricted.
Leader Drafting: You may never, ever draft more than one Leader from any given Age, no mat-
ter what happens to the first Leader you take. Never, ever.
Leader Replacement: The moment you replace a Leader, you instantly lose all of the benefits of
the former Leader (unless there is a benefit that explicitly states otherwise), and you instantly gain
all of the benefits of the new Leader. If you wish, you are permitted to replace a current-Age
Leader with a previous-Age leader.
Patriotism Action Card: This yellow Action Card gives you an extra Military Action during this
player turn. If you do not take this Military Action, the temporary unused Military Action will
permit you to possibly draw an additional Military Card at the end of your turn, but it will not
permit you to keep an additional Military Card when it comes time to discard excess Military
Cards (i.e., it counts as an unused Military Action, but not as a red Military Action cube).
Replacing a Technology Card: When you replace a Technology card, such as a blue Special
Technology or a Government Technology card, the switch is handled as a single combined
action--you cannot resolve it as two separate steps. In other words, if you swap out Warfare for
Strategy, you can't get rid of a spent Military Action when you discard Warfare and then replace
it with two unspent Military Actions when you place Strategy. Instead, you simply add one
unspent Military Action to your previous Military Actions, all of which remain spent or unspent
as they were before the Technology card was played.
*Replacing Leaders or Governments: Whenever you replace (or lose) a Leader that has been
granting you Actions (whether Military or Civil), or change a Government, and your number of
Military or Civil Actions decrease, you may elect to lose spent Actions--you need not lose un-
spent Actions. (This is a general rule, but it arises primarily in these two cases.)
Resources for a Specific Purpose: If a card gives you Resources or Food for a specific purpose,
and you do that purpose, you must expend these extra Resources first.
Revolution: You can replace a Leader and then do a Revolution during the same turn, but gener-
ally not vice versa.
Tactics: Whenever you lose Military Units and can no longer form any Armies, your Tactics
marker stays on the same Tactics card: you must expend Military Actions to move your marker to
a new Tactics card or onto a previously shared Tactics card. Whenever you recreate lost Military
Units, or whenever you lose specific Military Units, Armies form and reform immediately and
automatically. And your Military Units always combine into Armies in a way that takes fullest
advantage of your current Tactics bonus: this also applies to Military Units sent to Colonize.
Tactics: You don't need to have the necessary Military Units to form an Army when you play a
Tactics card. (One way to take advantage of this rule is as follows: (a) you play a Tactics card for
which you lack the necessary Military Units, a side-effect of which is that it cancels your previ-
ous Tactics card and any Army bonus it was giving you, perhaps dropping you into last place mil-
itarily; (b) you then play the "Wave of Nationalism" or "Military Build-Up" Action Card; (c)
being for the moment without a valid Army, your decreased Military Strength may entitle you to
increased Resources from this Action Card; (d) you then use these Resources to build the neces-
sary Military Units to take advantage of your new Tactics card.)
Tactics: More than one player can be using the same Tactics card at the same time.
 p. 12

Tactics: Any army composed of any outdated Military Units will add only the lower amount of
Military Strength to your civilization. It is possible to have both current and outdated Armies si-
multaneously. Outdated units are Military Units that are more than one Age older than the Age of
the Tactics card: Antiquity-Age Warriors with Age-II Tactics; or Antiquity-Age Warriors or Age-
I Knights and Swordsmen with Age-III Tactics. Exclusive Tactics, Shared Tactics, and all previ-
ously Shared Tactics never become obsolete at the end of an Age. The current Age of the game
has nothing to do with outdated Military Units or with how they combine with Tactics cards.
Urban Building Limit: This limit, as indicated in the lower right corner of your Government
card inside the building silhouette, applies only to gray Technology cards--and it applies per type
of card (e.g., it applies separately to all Urban Building cards that have identical symbols in the
upper right corner of their card--Labs, Temples, Arenas, Theaters, and Libraries). If your Urban
Building limit is two, you cannot have two Philosophy Labs (e.g., yellow Workers) and one Al-
chemy Lab in play at the same time.
Wonder Construction: As long as you expend the required number of Civil Actions and have
sufficient resources, you may build more than one Stage of a Wonder in a given turn. As you
build each Stage of a Wonder, you must place one blue marker on the Wonder card. (If you play
an Action card that lets you build a Stage for free, you must still pull a blue marker from your
blue bank to cover that Stage of the Wonder card. You must even cover the final Stage of a Won-
der with a blue marker, even if your blue bank is empty and you have to pull a blue marker from
one of your Farms or Mines.) When the Wonder is completed--or when an incomplete Wonder is
lost due to the ending or an Age or due to the Infiltrate Aggression--then you move the blue
markers back into your blue bank. Wonders that are lost while under construction do not increase
the cost of drafting new Wonders.
Wonders from Age-III: These Wonders have only a one-time effect: the moment they are com-
pleted, they score Culture points based on the current state of your civilization. At the end of the
game, they may indirectly contribute to other Age-III Impact of ___ Events, but otherwise they
will provide no additional Culture points.

End of Turn Phase

Consumption and Corruption: You do not sum all of the values exposed in your two banks
when figuring out how much Consumption and Corruption to pay--you pay only the leftmost
exposed value in either bank.
Discontent Workers: Your number of Discontent Workers is simply the difference between (a)
the minimum number of Happy Faces you should have, and (b) the insufficient number of Happy
Faces that you do have. Unused Workers have nothing to do with the number of Discontent
Workers. However, if you don't have at least as many Unused Workers as you have Discontent
Workers, then you risk an Uprising. Remember: Unused Workers don't cancel Discontent Work-
ers, they only prevent Uprisings (if you have a sufficient number of Unused Workers). Discontent
Workers may only be caused by fully empty sections of your yellow bank: for instance, if a sec-
tion in your yellow bank has only one yellow marker missing, that section cannot cause a Discon-
tent Worker.
Empty Military Deck: If the Military deck ever runs out during an Age, reshuffle all of the Mili-
tary Cards of that Age which have been discarded. Do not include any Military Cards that are in
the Past Events pile, nor the Military Cards from any other Age.
Production Not Voluntary: Production is not voluntary--you must follow each of the steps in the
End of Turn sequence (unless an Uprising causes you to skip several of them).
 p. 13

Errata
Mobile Artillery - Tactics: The title of this card is misspelled.

Miscellaneous
Card Counts: Compared with the first edition of this game, the second edition lowers each Civil
Deck's card count by one card for 2-player games, and by two cards for 4-player games; 3-player
games retain the same Civil Deck sizes.
Card Sleeves: You will need 329 sleeves to sleeve all of the cards. Unfortunately, the cards for
Through the Ages 2nd Edition did not fit any standard card sleeves when the game was published.
The cards themselves measure 50 x 73 mm. The closest two choices of card sleeves appear to be
the following . . .
Mayday Games premium "Sails of Glory" sleeves (50 x 75 mm). These sleeves are a cou-
ple of millimeters too tall, but you can easily snip off the excess with a pair of scissors
after you sleeve the cards.
Swan Panasia thick sleeves (52 x 74 mm).
Number of Rounds per Age: Typical games comprise 1 round of Antiquity, six rounds in each
of the three Ages, and a final Age-IV round--or about 20 rounds in total. Age III, however, can
often be one round briefer than the other Ages, and different players may end up with more or
fewer turns in any given Age, depending on precisely when the individual Civil Decks run out.
 p. 14

Rules Commonly Forgotten

Setup: Adjust the decks for the number of players: remove 3+ and 4 cards from Civil Decks I-III;
remove Pacts in 2-player games from Military Decks I-III.
Final Scoring: To break ties, assume it's the Starting Player's turn.
General Rules: (1) You cannot perform an Action of any type unless you perform all of the re-
quired sub-steps. (2) Whenever cards give you actions or resources to use this turn, and you con-
duct an action that requires these actions or resources, you spend these "virtual" markers first.
Blue Markers: You cannot make change upwards--e.g., you can never move a blue marker onto
a higher-Age card. When gaining food or resources, you are not allowed to move blue markers
off from cards, even if you have insufficient blue markers in your bank to collect all of it.
Yellow Markers: Any yellow marker not in the yellow bank is a Worker. When your "population
is decreased", move unused Workers to the yellow bank. (If none are available, move Workers
from technology cards--loser's choice of which Workers.) When you have to move markers from
the yellow bank to the box, but have insufficient markers in the yellow bank to meet the require-
ment, you lose only those markers which are actually in the yellow bank.
White and Red Markers: You generally gain them unspent; you may lose them as spent.
Happy Faces: "Happy Faces" and "Happiness" (which are used interchangeably) are limited to
eight. Unused Workers are not Happy Faces or Happiness.
Civil Card Hand-Limit: Your Civil card hand-limit (which is always equal to the number of
Civil Actions you are allowed) is in effect only as you are drafting cards. (The hand-limit doesn't
affect drafting Wonders, for Wonder cards go straight to the table.) You can never draft a dupli-
cate Technology card--e.g., one already in your hand or in play in front of you. Technology cards
are Civil Cards with a Science cost (light bulb) printed in the upper left corner of the card.
Wonders: To draft a Wonder costs +1 civil action per completed Wonder (in your area). You
may only have one uncompleted Wonder at a time.
Urban Building Limit: The maximum number of urban buildings (not mines or farms or military
units) that you may have of each category (Labs, Temples, Arenas, Theaters, or Libraries) is indi-
cated on your Government card (inside the gray house silhouette).
(Yellow) Action Cards: Action cards are not usable in the Action Phase in which you draft them.
(Blue) Special Technology Cards: When played, these replace any older-Age Special Technolo-
gy card that has the same icon in the upper right corner (Law, Warfare, Exploration, or Construc-
tion).
Military Cards: Only cards marked with a crown symbol in the upper left corner may be played
as Political Events, and that is the only time these cards may be played. Only cards with a harp
symbol in the upper right corner may be played onto the Future Events pile.
Tactics: You may only play a Tactics card--or copy a Tactics card--once per turn, (e.g., you may
only change your Tactics once per turn.)
Events: Follow the usual rules when evaluating an Event, except that players don't pay civil or
military actions unless the card specifically says to do so. Events that say "increase your popula-
tion" mean you must pay the food cost; events that say "gain 1 population" require no payment of
food. When comparing statistics in resolving Events, ties are broken by the standard tie-breaking
procedure. (I.e., the player whose turn it is--or barring that, the player who plays next--is consid-
ered to have the higher value of a tied statistic.) At the end of the game, any Age-III Events still
in the Current- and Future-Event stacks are evaluated.
 p. 15

Military Strength: In two-player games, the "two weakest/strongest" means "the weaker/strong-
er".
Colonies: These Events have the word "Territory" in their title. To win them, you must sacrifice
at least one military unit (yellow markers are returned to the yellow bank). The icons in the center
of the Territory card indicate a one-time immediate gain of something (it is not lost later, should
the player ever lose the colony; nor is it earned by another player who takes over the colony). The
icons along the bottom of the Territory card indicate a "permanent" gain (this gain is lost, though,
if the player ever loses the colony; and the new owner of the colony then receives this "perma-
nent" gain). When gaining a new colony, apply the permanent effects first (those indicated at the
bottom of the card). When bidding for new colonies, bids consist of only the following:
Strength of sacrificed military unit(s), plus
Bonus Cards (the number by the ship icon; cards that are part of the winning bid are dis-
carded), plus
Colonization Bonuses (in-play cards having ship icons; these cards are not discarded and
can be used on future Colony bids), plus
Any Tactics bonus if complete armies are sacrificed.
Note that Strength points given by in-play non-Military Unit Technology cards apply only to your
civilization as a whole, not to individual military units--and therefore do not count toward the
strength of sacrificed military units when making your colony bid. (This is true even if you were
to sacrifice all of your military units.) No Leader, no Wonder, no Special Technology card ever
affects the Strength of your sacrificed military units (although such cards may provide Coloni-
zation Bonuses or may help in forming whole Armies with those sacrificed military units).
Aggressions: The attacker loses in the case of ties, and only the attacker can win the Aggression.
The defender (only) can discard Military Bonus cards (for their stated value) and any other Mili-
tary cards (for 1 Strength apiece), using up to as many cards as the defender has Military Action
cubes.
Wars: Either player can win a War. But unlike with the first edition of Through the Ages, neither
player may sacrifice Military Units or discard Military Cards to raise his Strength.
Resigning: You can only resign as your sole Political Action. Any Wars declared against you
score the aggressor 7 Culture points. You may not resign during Age IV. Any Pacts you are in are
removed from play. When sweeping the leftmost slots of the Card Row, only count the number of
players still in the game. Do not remove any Pacts or 3+ or 4-player cards from the current-Age
decks; but do remove them from any future-Age decks. When the game is down to two players,
read the "two strongest/weakest civilizations" as "the stronger/weaker civilization".
Pacts: There is no negotiation before an offer (which consists of naming a proposed partner in the
Pact and also which role--A or B--that partner will fulfill). An offer counts as your sole political
action. Return the Pact card to your hand if the offer is rejected. Any Pact you offer--if accepted--
goes in front of you. You can have only one Pact in front of you, but you may be part of several
other players' Pacts. Placing a new Pact in play in your area (after it is accepted) cancels any pre-
vious Pact in your area. You can, instead, as your Political Event, cancel any Pact you're a part
of. Offering, Accepting, or Canceling Pacts requires no Military Actions.