Through the Ages Expansion: New Leaders & Wonders

There are some expansions that fix issues in the base game and some that are not necessary to enjoy a good game, then there are those that enhance gameplay and take it to new heights. Through the Ages: A new story of Civilization is a great game in its own right, but the New Leaders & Wonders expansion is a great enhancer.

The Basics

In Through the Ages, you are building your civilization, your empire, your tableau. Much of the game focuses on the card draft as you look for good cards to add to improve your buildings and increase your production of food, iron, happiness, science and culture. Amongst the cards you will see a range of unique leaders and wonders. These cards, apart from giving your civilization a flavoursome and unique feel, will add benefits and give you special bonuses and abilities to use.

The Expansion

What the expansion gives you is the following: rebalanced cards for the base game, new military cards and new leaders and wonders. It also adds a new optional mechanism for drafting leaders and wonders. Let’s explore these…

Rebalanced Cards

The base game isn’t new, it has been around for quite a while, but it does have a great following and naturally over the years there has been feedback that some cards need tweaking. Why? Because perhaps some of them were too strong as they stood whilst others too weak. These have been reworded to balance the set with the aim to encourage more varied play. If you want to use the new variants you can simply replace the old cards with the new. Simple.

New Military Cards

Simply put, you have a few more additional military cards to add to the base game to add more variety.

New Leaders & Wonders

This is where the expansion shines brightest. There are 24 new leaders (six in each age) and 16 new wonders (four in each age). They add a lot more variation and choice to create even more possibilities and when you play, you can simply add the new cards to the mix.

Variants on drafting leaders and wonders. This new expansion offers a new choice too in how you draft leaders and wonders.

• Option a) Secret mix – simply add the new cards to the existing stock for each age and as before you draw a limited number for each age based on the number of players and shuffle in to the corresponding decks of civil cards. This applies to both leaders and wonders.
• Option b) Public mix – with this option you randomly select the number of leaders and wonders per age, but instead of shuffling them in to the civil decks you place them on the new leader and wonder tracks. You then shuffle in a corresponding number of proxy cards into the main decks of civil cards.

This option gives you the knowledge of what new leaders and wonders are available and gives you the opportunity to plan your strategy accordingly. When a proxy card is revealed on the main card draft queue, you simply replace it with the corresponding card from either the leader or wonder track.

The Components

These are the same good quality as before and you also get a few additional cubes to use.

Final Thoughts

This is a game I will almost always say yes to playing and likely only the time available will determine whether I don’t. The New Leaders & Wonders expansion is a highly recommended addition and for the price it is great value.