Through the Ages again and again

My blog is starting to look like a photo gallery for games of Through the Ages. I can't help taking photos every time I play Through the Ages. Every game tells a story, a history of civilisations. So, here are some more histories...

A game played on 23 May 2009. My civilisation at the end of the game. It doesn't seem particularly intesting here, until you see the next picture...

... and realise that I have SIX colonies. I have so many extra yellow tokens in this game. The stars simply aligned perfectly in this game for me, in terms of colonisation. I drew many colonisation bonus cards. Almost every time that a colony came up, I had just enough military units and bonus cards to beat Michelle in winning the colony. I did lose one colony due to an event, but it was a minor loss. The colonies gave me a lot of population, so I didn't need many farms to produce food for population growth. James Cook gave to 2pts per colony per turn. He was the game winner for me. Notice that incomplete wonder. I miscalculated, and suffered corruption on my 2nd last turn, thus I failed to complete the Internet.

Michelle's civilisation. She actually did quite well, and caught up a lot towards the end game. She changed government 3 times! She did have a lot of science and could afford it.

Michelle's wonders, colonies, special technologies and leaders.

The gameboard at game end.

A game played on 24 May 2009. My civilisation at game end. This was probably the first time I built an airforce. In this game we were both nervous about each other's military. We were both reluctant to play event cards, fearing events that punish the militarily weak. We still had Age I events unresolved by Age III. Actually there weren't many events punishing the weak. It was just groupthink causing the arms race.

My wonders, special technologies and leaders. Michaelangelo contributed much culture. Game Designer not much, since he came quite late. I took him in only because I had lots of civil actions to spare.

This was the game end, before the last four events were resolved. Michelle was only 2pts ahead of me! What a close game!

The first game end event card was one that I had planted, and was prepared for. Not that Michelle didn't guess that this was coming. She decided she needed to pay attention to other aspects of her civilisation instead of spending so many resources on building up military. So, I was awarded 10pts for being militarily stronger.

Out of four game end event cards, three were planted by me, and they all benefited me more. So I overtook Michelle and won the game.

Michelle's civilisation. I think one reason I had more good events at game end was that I had many more military actions than her. Military actions allowed you to draw more military cards at thus give you a higher chance of drawing event cards good for you. Also having more military actions means you can spend some on building military units, and still have some left over to allow you to draw cards. Michelle never increased her military actions throughout this game. Usually she likes to gain military strength and military actions through special techs and arenas (as opposed to just military units). Michelle had quite a strong tactics card in this game. We both spent more effort than usual on military. She even played an aggression against me once, successfully, and took 7 culture points from me.

Michelle had Cook, but not many colonies to make use of Cook's power of generating 2 culture points per colony per turn. Well, that's better than me. I didn't have any colony.

Our science and culture rates at game end.