Grow your fledgling civilization from scratch and outmaneuver opposing civilizations in Roll Through the Ages: the Bronze Age! Outsmart your opponents as you build cities and research developments. Complete great monuments before they do. Avoid disasters while sending pestilence and revolts to your opponents. Become probably the most powerful empire in the Bronze Age by winning the technology and construction race in this exciting dice game!

Roll Through the Ages is an empire-building dice game thematically based on the Through the Ages board game which in turn is based on the hit computer game Sid Meier's Civilization (which subsequently is based on the original Civilization board game!) This dice game - with each game lasting about around 30 minutes - is known as a fast and easy option to the Through the Ages board game which has considerably more complicated mechanics and will take up to 4-5 hours.

Roll Through the Ages includes a group of 7 dice unique to the game, 4 pegboards, colored pegs and a collection of score sheets, and that's all that's necessary to play the game. The game mechanics are also pretty easy to pick up: a change starts with a new player rolling dice to see what resources they get. Goods and food are collected and workers are fed. The workers build cities and monuments, and then you get to purchase a development DND Dice. That's the foundation of the game, and players repeat these actions before game ends, which happens when all of the monuments have been built or any single player has 5 developments. The gamer most abundant in victory points wins the game.

The initial action in the turn is rolling the dice to see what resources you get. The amount of dice you roll depends on what many cities you have, and the dice produce either food, goods, workers, coins or skulls. Workers are used to build new cities and monuments, while food is needed to feed the workers. Goods and coins are used to buy developments. Skulls are bad, representing disasters that occur to either you or your opponents.

You get to roll each die around 3 times (except skulls which can't be re-rolled). This lets you influence the dice to produce resources closer to what you need that turn. More workers will be handy if you had been trying to expand or build a monument, when you will want more food if the food stores are running low and your individuals are about to starve. Once all of the dice are rolled, any food and goods collected are marked on a pegboard which records the stuff you have in storage. Depending on what many goods you roll and just how much stock you have, various kinds of goods with differing coin values are included with your stock.

Another action is always to feed your cities. Having more cities means you get to roll more dice, but it also means you will need to produce more food to help keep them from starving. In the event that you don't produce enough food and you have insufficient food in storage, your workers will starve and you is going to be penalized with negative victory points. Disasters (based on skulls on the dice) are resolved now as well. Depending on what many skulls arrive, either you or your opponents will incur negative points or even lose all the goods in storage.

Another phase involves assigning the workers you rolled this turn to building cities and/or monuments. Each available city or monument has tick boxes inside them on the score sheet, indicating exactly how many workers are expected to perform them. Once all tick boxes in an area or monument are filled, they are completed. Completed cities give you yet another die to roll but cost an extra food each turn. Monuments haven't any effect other than providing you with with victory points. There's urgency in building them though, as the initial player to perform a monument will earn double the points of those who find themselves slower. Additionally, among the endgame conditions is when all of the monuments have been built.

Lastly, you get to buy developments utilizing the goods in your storage and with coins rolled this turn. These developments provide victory points but also convey beneficial effects. As an example, the Agriculture development gives an extra food for every food die you roll, as the Religion development causes the Revolt disaster to affect your opponents as opposed to yourself. The stronger developments will surely cost more, but provide more victory points when the game ends. Another of the end game conditions is when any player has 5 developments.

The strategies available are nearly limitless. Do you wish to concentrate on growing your cities first and thereby get to roll more dice? Or do you wish to sacrifice growth to be able to rush-build monuments for double points before others have a chance to complete them? Or do you prefer to take the offensive and try to produce disasters that will cripple your opponents? Or do you want to invest the early game in getting goods and coins for powerful developments? With the developments, you might also need a selection in focusing on commerce-related developments, or ones focusing on food or disasters. As imaginable, you will find so many approaches to play this game.

The only real drawback is that the game is actually quick (around half an hour) and doesn't feel as epic being an empire-building game should. The developers took this up to speed, and have released a free mini-expansion called The Late Bronze Age which contains adjustments to the game mechanics and objectives. This expansion can be downloaded from their website, and contains new mechanics such as shipping and trading goods with other players. This adds more complexity and player interaction to the game. The endgame conditions are also adjusted, with games now lasting a more fulfilling one hour.

Roll Through the Ages is a simple and elegant game that captures the feel of an empire-building game, but with only a portion of that time period investment. And since its name contains the words 'The Bronze Age', it is fair to believe that more expansions is going to be coming along to create you through the Medieval, Industrial and Modern ages for more empire-building fun. Roll Through the Ages is ideal for you if you like empire-building games like Through the Ages or Endeavor, but prefer something that's quick and simple.