Age of Empires ECG (2nd edition) ideas

Ideas I had for the Age of Empires ECG

Aims I had

• Finishing it
  • Adding content that was planned but never happened
• Maintaining thematic ties
• Making it affordable
  • Making it non-collectible
    • Making it so players could P&P civilization packs
• Making it quick to set-up and pack-up
• Making it accessible
  • Releasing the P&P files for free
  • Releasing it on Tabletop Simulator
• Making it pretty
• Making it less of a time commitment to start and finish a game
  • Making it flow better
  • Making it progress faster
    • Reducing how much time players have to stop playing in order to
      • Do calculations
      • Move pieces around
  • Making it take less time to teach
    • Having few rules exceptions
    • Having rules that are intuitive to an extent
• Making it immersive
  • Minimizing how often players have poor options (e.g. useless technologies to choose from)
  • Making it so each game has the potential to be different from the last
• Making it competitive
  • Making it so no player has an unfair advantage due to access to particular cards that their opponent lacks
  • Making it so no player can utilize dirty tactics (e.g. making it so a player can't play "The King is Dead, Long Live the King" 5 times in a row, which helps them win with a wonder without their opponent being able to attack at all)
  • Making it so there's no entity that can't be stopped, that it has weaknesses
  • Making it so there's no entity that has no use, that it has strengths
  • Making it so the counter units cost resources too so the defender is set back a bit by responding to the moves of the attacking player
  • Making it so there's some hidden information (if possible) so the attacker has some initiative
  • Making it so each civilization has a shot at winning versus all other civilizations.
• Making it so the winner is the best decision-maker as opposed to the luckiest or best memorizer
  • Making it so luck has little impact on who wins
• Making it so the game is strategically interesting
  • Making it so players can change their strategy on the fly
  • Making it so there's a range of viable strategies
• Making it so the winner has to utilize skills such as
  • Resource management

Inspirations

• Anachronism's hero picks
• David Sirlin's argument that in-game deck-building is better
• David Sirlin's approach to using tier lists and match-up charts for measuring game balance
• Age of Empires II
• Age of Empires ECG
• Never released Age of Empires ECG expansion - Heroes and Events
• Never released Age of Empires ECG expansion - Smoke and Saints
• Never released Age of Empires ECG expansion - Conquerors
• Never released Age of Empires ECG expansion - Regicide Pack

Permissions

Had approval to come up with this (with non-commercial stipulation) from:

• The United States Playing Cards Company (USPCC)

Had approval to re-use art (with non-commercial stipulation) from:

• Andy De Pooter
• Matt Busch
• Ron Miller
• Joe Corroney
• Jonathan Queen
• Lee Moyer
• David Aikins

Reasons I stopped working on this

• Had difficulties coming up with solutions for some of the problems I had with the original game
• Had difficulties reaching a Microsoft representative to ensure I wasn't violating their IP rights in making this
• Realized that I underestimated the investment needed to make a board game
  • ~ 250 USD/per card art
  • ~ years of time
• Realized that I don't want to design a board game on one's own since that's a lot harder
  • Partner could help with playtesting
  • Partner could provide input on ideas
  • Partner could provide their own ideas
  • Partner could help with proof-reading the rules
  • Partner could have helpful skills that could be utilized
    • Probability
    • Statistics
    • Graphic design
• Wasn't able to obtain the original Age of Empires ECG assets
• Wasn't certain that there was a large enough audience for this to justify working on it
• Would have preferred to do one's own project from the start with no non-commcerical stipulation so I'd be able to obtain funding
• Worked out that I'd prefer to be involved in making video games over board games
  • Easier to playtest
  • Easier to make changes
  • Have more expertise with this

Categories it'd fall under

• City Building
• Civilization
• Fighting
• Medieval
• Print & Play
• Video Game Theme

Mechanics it'd have

• Rock-Paper-Scissors
• Tech Trees/Tech Tracks
• Variable Player Powers

Ideas I had

On what I wanted to keep from the AoE ECG

• Need to manage 4 resources
  • Food
  • Gold. Needed more in the mid to late game
  • Stone. Needed more in the mid to late game
  • Wood
• Units having attack bonuses. There's a counter unit for every unit in the game so a large force consisting of all of the same troops shouldn't win if the opponent counters it.
• Units having a flat attack value
• Units dying
• Units exhausting
  • Units having an active state
  • Units having an inactive state
• Having a static turn order
• Having smaller-scale battles. Lots of "good trades" are needed. Don't win after winning a single battle with one's army
• Maintaining preexisting unit limits. Should make it easier to calculate the outcome of the battle
• Maintaining a limited base size. Should help make it fit on the table if players can't for example, play a 1 row x 24 columns grid of cards as opposed to a 4 row * 6 columns grid of cards
• Sticking with cards. Affordable. Can fit more information on them. Can present art on them
• Maintaining a tech tree
• Having a researched technologies zone. Can play some technologies on others (E.g. the "Long Swordsman" card on top of the "Man-at-Arms" card) in order to conserve some space
• Being able to hit and run with ranged units
• Ability to play different playstyles
  • Rushing
  • Booming
  • Turtling
• Having combat be as complex as it is now
  • Attack value
  • Attack modifiers value
    • Attack bonuses vs. certain armor classes
    • Attack bonuses due to researched technologies
  • HP value
  • HP modifiers value
    • HP bonuses vs. certain armor classes
    • HP bonuses due to researched technologies
  • Armor classes value
  • Quantity of unit value. This complicates the formula more-so than all the other values
    • Explanation A

Damage = Round down ( (Unit quantity * (Attack factoring in attack modifiers)) / (HP factoring in HP modifiers) ) * Explanation B Damage = The closest positive integer multiple of HP factoring in HP modifiers that can fit into (Unit quantity * (Attack factoring in attack modifiers))

On what I wanted to remove from the AoE ECG

• Buildings are what creates land and what explores it. A lot of rules had to be introduced in order to make this idea a part of the Age of Empires ECG. It affects how the village is formed (e.g. there's a limit of 3 rows and ∞ columns), how movement works (e.g. a unit can move from a fringe building (a building on the outskirts of one's village sans the bottom edge of one's village) to an opponent's fringe building), and how attacking works (e.g. if your unit card is on an opponent's building card and your opponent has a unit card there too, you have the choice to attack their building or their unit). When I read a sentence like "There are two types of null spaces: non-fringe and fringe", I want to pack-up this game and play another game because understanding how this works is joyless. I don't like it all. This idea was made more complicated with the addition of further rules in the Nautical expansion
• Blindly drawing cards from a deck
• Pre-game deck-building
• Villager research cost.
• Being unable to attack your opponent in the Dark Age

On what I observed Age of Empires II had but the ECG did not have

• Ability to garrison troops inside of buildings like towers or castles
  • For protection
  • For healing
  • For dealing more damage inside of the building
• Chance for animal lures to be unsuccessful
• Defender advantage due to closer production buildings
• Town Centers having an attack value
• Castles having an attack value
• Having a line of sight value
• Resource depletion (with the exception of Fish Traps in Age of Empires ECG). Resources close to you run out first so forced to gain control over other positions of the map that are closer to the enemy for your resources
• Fog of war and large maps, which creates a need for scouting
  • To find where your opponent is
  • To work out what strategy your opponent is going for
  • To work out what armies are coming towards your base and from where
• Need to reseed farms
• Randomly generated maps
• Population caps
• Civilizations faring better on some maps than others
• Inverted pyramid of interesting decisions. The player had to make only a few decisions at first but the number grows
• Race to secure strategically valuable positions on the map
• Sending villagers forward
  • E.g. To make offensive structures like towers
  • E.g. To make military production buildings
  • E.g. To fight with them (in case Sappers is researched)
  • E.g. To repair buildings and siege units
• Well-integrated team-play
  • Need to coordinate with teammates
    • E.g. For gifting resources
    • E.g. For trade
    • E.g. For what unit composition to make
    • E.g. For fighting together
    • E.g. For what civilizations to pick

On what I thought wouldn't be best for the AoE ECG

• Cards as resources
• Dice combat
• Having action cards
• Keeping track of research technologies via a tech tree. Takes up too much space
• Being awarded VPs for controlling map regions
• Having control groups that represent groups of entities on single spaces of the map
• Having a time limit on turns
• Making the combat much simpler like damage dealt = HP - Attack
• Abstract battlefield like in Ashes Reborn or in Codex (the patrol zone)
• Having an area between players that is fought over like in The Ares Project (the frontier)
• Playing cards from binders instead of from a deck
  • Binders are expensive (~ 45 AUD/480 card binder)
  • Binders make it hard to access the cards
• Simultaneous turns or phases of turns
• Using pen and paper to track resources
• Using a resource track to track resources
• Making combat even more complicated
  • Armor value. This complicates the formula even more

Damage = (Attack of the attacking entity factoring in attack modifiers) - (Armor of the defending entity factoring in armor modifiers) where this can never be < 0 * Accuracy value. Having an additional step (seeing if the unit hits or not) would increase the duration of combat. This could, for example, be implemented by having a d10 die roll where you must roll a certain number or higher to hit the target. E.g. For an Archer to hit a unit, this could require a 3 or higher (80% odds of a hit) while for a Trebuchet to hit a unit, this could require a 9 or higher (20% odds of a hit). * Rate of fire value

On what I wasn't sure would be best for the AoE ECG

Having resources deplete

• Would resources taken be indicated by taking them off the space?
• Would resources taken be tracked instead of taking them off the space?
• How many resources would you get before having to re-build the Farm/Lumber Camp/Mine/Fish Trap
  • Would technologies like Horse Collar, Heavy Plow, and Crop Rotation increase the amount of food gathered from a farm?
  • Would technologies like Horse Collar, Heavy Plow, and Crop Rotation decrease how quick farms deplete?

Having map cards indicating how to set-up the map for a variable set-up

• Indicating where particular terrain is
• Indicating resource distirubtion
• Indicating player counts the map supports

Having a map with regions that can be contested for

• How big would it be?
• What map features would it represent?
  • Elevation
  • Sea that's passible for naval units
  • Forests
  • Desert
  • Plains
  • Mountains that are impassable
• What resources would map regions contain?
• How would each player's stuff fit on the map?
• How many players could play on the map?
• How would each player's stuff traverse the map?
• Would it be rectangular shaped so cards could fit?
• Would it be diamond shaped?
• Would it be square shaped?
• Would it be hexagonal shaped?
• Would this interface with the Town board of each player? In WarCraft: The Board Game and StarCraft: The Board Game, there's a single tile on the map that interfaces with each player's town.
• Would this introduce an exploration aspect to the game that involves flipping over/placing new map regions

Having a movement value on each unit card, which indicfbpates how fast that unit traverses the map

Allowing for combat between more than two battle participants

Recurring villager cost to unpack/pack the Trebuchet

• This would be opposed to a base villager cost

Flipping over the card when the unit is present in a battle

• Way of partially hiding them from the opponent. Can still see where they're moving

Drawing units present in a battle from a bag

• Way of fully hiding them from the opponent until the battle happens

Town board with different action spots concept

• Could perhaps hide it through a screen until opponent is in your town
• E.g. Town Center having a create villager spot
• E.g. Blacksmith having a research blacksmith technology spot
• E.g. Edge of the board having a fight, raid, and scout spot

On what I wanted to add to the AoE ECG

Time research cost concept

• Using research bits to track technologies that are in the process of being researched. The number of bits on it corresponds to the number of turns it takes for the technology to come into effect. One is removed each turn until the research is complete

Card limits concept

• ~ 10 wall cards/per player
• Having a card limit of 1/per player for building and tech cards that are only played up to once/each game (e.g. “Hand Cart”, “Mill”, & “Elite War Elephant (Persian)”)

Research phase concept

• Introducing a research phase after the construction phase. In this phase, players can play cards with a research cost

Purchase phase and tactics card concept

• Dividing them into an Age I, II, III, and IV deck based on how powerful they are
• As part of set-up, 3 cards from each of these decks are put in a row and revealed
• During the purchase phase (a new phase that's the first phase of each player's turn), a player can choose to buy up to 3 of these cards if they pay the cost associated with the cards and meet the Age requirements. At the end of a player's turn, new tactics cards are put out to replace taken tactics cards. If a tactics card refers to cards that neither civilization can play (e.g. “Cavalry Archers”) then it may be discarded and replaced with another card. Played tactics cards go in a discard pile

Discovery concept

• Exploration of the map results in drawing a discovery card from your discovery cards deck, which consists of: "Boar" x 2, "Sheep" x 4, "Stand of trees" x 3, "Fallen Tree" x 2, "Berries" x 1, "Gold Nugget" x 1, "Exposed Gold Deposit" x 1, "Quarry" x 1, "Rock Collection" x 1, & unique relic cards x 3. Relics must be placed into No Man's Land upon drawing them. The other cards may be played during the player's current & future turns.

In-game deck-building concept

• Browsing through a unit cards deck during the enlistment phase
• Browsing through a building cards deck during the construction phase
• Browsing through a technology cards deck during the research phase
• Setting up each of the decks so that they only consist of cards that a player can play given their civilization and current Age. Throughout the game, more cards will be added to these decks (e.g. upon advancing to the next Age)
• Any of a player's units, buildings, and technologies removed from play return to that player's units, building, and technology deck

Heroes concept

• Stats of them are buffed versions of standard units (e.g. Theodoric the Goth is a stronger Huskarl) with the same prerequisites and resource costs as their base model
• Can only be played once
• Can only have one of them
• Can only pick one hero/a game
• Can't convert them
• Can't target them with event cards
• Can attach them to other unit cards
  • Have to kill all other units on the attached unit card before being able to target the hero on it
• Can attach them to other unit cards

King of the Hill victory condition concept

• Adding game ending condition if control over a monument is retained for six turns

Regicide victory condition concept

• Adding game ending condition if opponent's / your king is killed

Score victory condition concept

• Adding game ending condition after a certain number of turns have passed. The player or team with the highest score after whatever amount of turns this is, wins
  • Score based on Age advancement
  • Score based on leftover resources
  • Score based on kills
  • Score based on surviving entities
  • Score based on researced technologies

Art direction

Art style

• Realistic
• Vibrant. Bright colors

Artistic talent needed

• Sketching
• Painting w/ Acryllic

Artwork size

~ 5.75 inches by 6.75 inches

Art guidance based on the age

• Dark Age
  • Units should be clad primarily in cloth or padded armor. They could also have some leather.
• Feudal Age
  • Units should be clad primarily in leather or studded / ringed leather armor. They could also have some chain mail items and metal helms.
• Castle Age
  • Units should be clad primarily in chain main or scale mail armor. They could also have some plate mail items.
• Imperial Age
  • Units should be clad primarily in plate mail armor.

Art guidance based on the unit type

• Christian monks should wear brown robes tied with rope (Friar Tuck).
• Pagan monks should be as Christian monks but with a goat-head mask.
• Muslim monks should wear an off-white robe and a small circular cap.
• Buhddist monks should be as Muslim monks but with no cap and a bald head.
• Archer units should generally be clad in chain mail or lesser armor.
• Berserkers and the axe thrower can wear less clothing than the others.
• Janissaries must have their distinctive hats.
• Woad berserkers must have their distinctive tattoos, pants, and neck torques.
• Samurai should have distinctive Japanese armor.
• Teutonic Knights and Samurai are foot units.

Art guidance for the heroes

• Could use Anachronism for inspiration since it's of a similar art style to the Age of Empires ECG

Art style based on the civilization

• African style:
  • Ethiopians
  • Malians
• Central Asian style
  • Cumans
  • Tatars
• Central European style:
  • Goths
  • Teutons
  • Vikings
• East Asian style:
  • Chinese
  • Japanese
  • Koreans
  • Vietnamese
• Nomadic style
  • Huns
  • Mongols
• Eastern European style:
  • Bulgarians
  • Lithuanians
  • Magyars
  • Slavs
• Mediterranean style:
  • Byzantines
  • Italians
  • Portugese
  • Spanish
• Meso-American style
  • Aztecs
  • Incas
  • Mayans
• Middle Eastern style:
  • Berbers
  • Persians
  • Saracens
  • Turks
• South Asian style:
  • Indians
• South-East Asian style
  • Burmese
  • Khmer
  • Malay
• Western European style
  • Britons
  • Celts
  • Franks

New components I wanted to make use of

• Having a physical representation of military units, monks, and villagers
  • Using different colored d6 dice
• Having a card bin for storing the cards
  • Using cardboard card bin (cheap option)
  • Using BCW collectible card bin (expensive option)
• Having a physical repreantation of who controls what
  • Using colored plastic counters (cheap option)
• Having a physical representation of the research cost
  • Using purple transluscent cubes (cheap option)
  • Using book bits (expensive option)
• Having a physical representation of the resources
  • Using brown, grey, red, and yellow resource cubes (cheap option)
  • Using wood, stone, food, and gold resource bits (expensive option)
• Having opaque card sleeves to provide stability to the P&P card and make them less see through

Mistakes I wanted to fix

Unit cards

• Spearman (1st artwork)
  • Cost of the card: "1F, 1W"
• Spearman (Goth)
  • Cost of the card: "1F, 1W"
• Skirmisher
  • Cost of the card: "1F, 1W"
• Camel
  • Prerequisite Age: "Age III"
• War Elephant (Persian)
  • Text on the card: "Movement: 2"
• Monk
  • HP of them: "6".
  • Attack value of them: "0 AP".
  • Want to make a unit card for it even if the card isn't on the field. Can be used as a reference
• Knight (Persian)
  • Cost of them: 2F, 2G

Event cards

• "Brushfire"
  • Brushfire is a word but the artwork doesn't match the word.
  • Title of the card: "Bushfire"

Technology cards

• "Padded Archer Armor" ==
  • Cost of the card: "2F, 1B"
• "Elite Huskarl" (Goth) ==
  • Text on the card: "16 AP vs Archer"
• "Elite Mangudai" (Mongol) ==
  • Text on the card: "16 AP vs Siege"
• "Elite War Elephant" (Persian) ==
  • Text on the card: "Movement: 2"
• "Paladin" ==
  • Text on the card: "Movement: 2"
• "Pikeman (Japanese)" ==
  • Cost of it: "1W, 1G, 1B"
• "Pikeman (Viking)" ==
  • Cost of it: "1W, 1G, 1B"
• "Paladin" (Persian) ==
  • Cost of the card: "2F, 3G"

Building cards

• Charlamagne's Palace at Aix-la-Chapelle
  • Title of the card: "Charlemagne's Palace at Aix-la-Chapelle"
• Notre-Dame Cathedral
  • Title of the card: "Notre-Dame de Paris"
• Castle (Frank)
  • Cost of the card: 10S, 15B

Relic cards

• Golden Crown of Charlemange
  • Title of the card: "Golden Crown of Charlemagne"

New content I wanted to add

Cards list

Population tracker

Score tracker

Tech trees

Civilization cards

Byzantine card

• Unique Unit: Cataphract
• Monk Healing Rate has a +2 modifier, thus making it easier to heal units.
• Camels, Skirmishers and Pikeman cost less to enlist. X
• Fire Ships have an increased attack. X
• Advancing to the Imperial Age costs 10F, 8G, 2B.
• All Buildings played by a Byzantine player get the following HP bonus: Age I - 10 HP, Age II - 20 HP, Age III - 30 HP, Age IV - 40 HP.

Chinese card

• Unique Unit: Cho Ko Nu
• Start the game with 6 villagers and 2 food, instead of 3 villagers and 5 food.
• Farms produce additional food. X
• Town Center add 7 to the Villagers Population Limit. X
• Demolition Ships have increased HP. X
• All Technologies played by a Chinese player get the following reduction in cost: Age II - 1, Age III - 2, Age IV - 3

Teuton card

• Unique Unit: Teutonic Knight
• Conversion Rate modifier is -1 against Teutonic units, thus making it harder to convert.
• A unit with monks attached can assist with its Healing Attempt on an adjacent unit. A unit can only be targeted by this once per turn. The assisting monks cannot be engaged in combat.
• Towers have increased attack. X
• Murder Holes may be played without cost.
• Farms have a lower building cost. X

Turk card

• Unique Unit: Janissary
• When entering the Imperial Age, retrieve Chemistry from your Play deck and play it for free.
• When entering the Castle Age, retrieve Light Cavalry from your Play deck and play it for free.
• Turks start the game with Gold Mining in play.
• Gunpowder Units have increased HP. X All Age Advancement only takes 1 research.

Building cards

• Bombard Tower
• Farm (Chinese)
• Farm (Teuton)
• Monastery (Teuton)
• Monastery (Byzantine)
• Town Center (Chinese)
• Watch Tower (Teuton)
• Wonder (Byzantine)
• Wonder (Chinese)
• Wonder (Teuton)
• Wonder (Turk)

Unit cards

• Bombard Cannon (Turk)
• Camel (Byzantine)
• Cannon Galleon (Turk)
• Cataphract (Byzantine)
• Chu Ko Nu (Chinese)
• Demolition Ship (Chinese)
• Eagle Scouts
• Dromon
• Fire Ship (Byzantine)
• Hand Cannoneer (Turk)
• Janissary (Turk)
• Spearman (Byzantine)
• Skirmisher (Byzantine)
• Steppe Lancer
• Transport ship
• Transport Ship (Saracen)
• Trade carts / cogs
  • Cost of the cards: 2W, 1G. Text on the card :"During the movement phase of one's turn, increment a die on the card. During the collection phase of one's turn, you can cash-in 1/2/3/5/8/12 gold based on if the number on the die is 1/2/3/4/5/6 and then the number on the die resets to 1"
• Trebuchet
  • Text on the card: "Put a token on it to denote if it's unpacked or packed. Allocate 5 villagers to the card during the allocation phase to change it's stance. The Trebuchet must be packed to attack and unpacked to move"
• Teutonic Knight (Teuton)
• Xolotl Warrior

General technology cards

• Architecture
• Atonement
• Ballistics
• Block Printing
• Careening
• Chemistry
• Dry Dock
• Faith
• Fervor
• Gambesons
• Gillnets
• Heated Shot
• Illumination
• Masonry
• Murder Holes
• Redemption
• Sanctity
• Siege Engineers
• Supplies
• Treadmill Crane

Unique technology cards

• Anarchy (Goth)
• Atheism (Hun)
• Bearded Axe (Frank)
• Bogsveigar (Viking)
• Chieftains (Viking)
• Chivalry (Frank)
• Crenellations (Teuton)
• Counterweights (Saracen)
• Drill (Mongol)
• Eupseong (Korean)
• El Dorado (Mayan)
• Furor Celtica (Celt)
• Garland Wars (Aztec)
• Greek Fire (Byzantine)
• Great Wall (Chinese)
• Hul'che Javelineers (Mayan)
• Ironclad (Teuton)
• Inquisition (Spanish)
• Kataparuto (Japanese)
• Kamandaran (Persian)
• Logistica (Byzantine)
• Mahouts (Persian)
• Marauders (Hun)
• Nomads (Mongol)
• Perfusion (Goth)
• Rocketry (Chinese)
• Shinkichon (Korean)
• Sipahi (Turk)
• Stronghold (Celt)
• Supremacy (Spanish)
• Warwolf (Briton)
• Yasama (Japanese)
• Yeomen (Briton)
• Zealotry (Saracen)

Unit upgrade technology cards

• Eagle Warrior
• Elite Cannon Galleon (Turk)
• Elite Cataphract (Byzantine)
• Elite Chu Ko Nu (Chinese)
• Elite Janissary (Turk)
• Elite Skirmisher (Byzantine)
• Elite Teutonic Knight (Teuton)
• Fast Fire Ship (Byzantine)
• Guard Tower (Teuton)
• Heavy Camel (Byzantine)
• Heavy Demolition Ship (Chinese)
• Keep (Teuton)
• Pikeman (Byzantine)

Hero cards

• Ahuitzotl (Aztec)
• Cuitlahuac (Aztec)
• Itzcoatl (Aztec)
• Montezuma ii (Aztec)
• Tlacaelel I (Aztec)
• Alfred the Great (Briton)
• King Arthur (Briton)
• Merlin (Briton)
• Richard The Lionheart (Briton)
• Robin Hood (Briton)
• William Wallace (Celt)
• Yue Fei (Chinese)
• Charlemagne (Frank)
• Charles Martel (Frank)
• Godfrey of Bouillion (Frank)
• Joan of Arc (Frank)
• Roland Le Paladin (Frank)
• Alaric I (Goth)
• Theoderic The Great (Goth)
• Atilla The Hun (Hun)
• Benkei (Japanese)
• Hattori Hanzo (Japanese)
• Minamoto No Yoshitsune (Japanese)
• Oda Nobunaga (Japanese)
• Yi Sun-sin (Korean)
• Genghis Khan (Mongol)
• Khutulun (Mongol)
• Ogatai Khan (Mongol)
• Apranik (Persian)
• Amr Ib Al-as (Saracen)
• Harun al-rashid (Saracen)
• King & Queen
• Harun al-rashid (Saracen)
• Saladin (Saracen)
• El Cid (Spanish)
• Hernan Cortez (Spanish)
• La Malinche (Spanish)
• Isabella I Of Castille (Spanish)
• Tomas De Torquemada (Spanish)
• Bayezid I (Turk)
• Selim I (Turk)
• Suleiman I (Turk)
• Beowulf (Viking)
• Canute The Great (Viking)
• Freydís Eiríksdóttir (Viking)
• Harald Hardrada (Viking)
• Harthacnut (Viking)
• Siegfried (Viking)

Discovery cards

• Resource cards: "Boar", "Sheep", "Stand of trees", "Fallen Tree", "Berries", "Gold Nugget", "Exposed Gold Deposit", "Quarry", & "Rock Collection"
• Relic cards: "The Cross of Cong", "A Branch from the Bo Tree", "Book of Zaydi", "Golden Crown of Charlemagne", "The Holy Grail", "Raven Banner of King Knut", "Golden Gonjir", "Seal of Muhammed", & "Kusanagi-no-tsuruyi"

Tactics cards

• Pillage
  • Text on the card: "Gain resources when destroying enemy buildings this turn"
• Slave Trade.
  • Modified card text: "Your opponent must have at least 5 villagers."
• "Revelation"
• Text on the card: "Search through the tactics card deck and select any one tactics card from it. Reshuffle it afterwards"
• "Build Up Your Defense"
  • Text on the card: "Take up to 3 Stone walls from your buildings card deck and put them into play at no cost"
• "Mercenaries"
  • Text on the card: "Select a non-unique & non-siege unit card from one's unit cards deck and this card goes up for bid in gold with your bid of at least 1G. The highest bid gets the card with 5 tokens on it in their village. Bidding proceeds clockwise"
• "Learn From Your Mistakes"
  • Text on the card: "Put a played card back into one's deck and get the resource cost back from it"
• "Spies"
  • Text on the card: "May know which cards your opponent will play (if any) on their next turn during your current turn"
• "Your Hunters Are Waylaid"
  • Text on the card: Replace term "event cards" with "discovery cards"
• "Copious book selection"
  • Text on the card: "Research costs are not paid on target Technology or Upgrade, but the research time is doubled"
• "Starting from scratch"
  • Text on the card: "Flip over a Dark Age building from an opposing player"
• "Your will is not strong enough"
  • Text on the card: "Play after another player plays a card. Player must wait until their next turn to play that card"
• "Inventive mind"
  • Text on the card: "May play a technology card from a higher Age if the cost for it is still paid"
• "Look to the future"
  • Text on the card: "May play one tactics card without being in the pre-requisite Age for it and without paying the cost for it"
• "Knowledge has a price"
  • Text on the card: "Opposing player must pay double the cost to put a technology card in play"
• "Recruiting"
  • Text on the card: "Exchange up to 5 villagers for up to 5 units on a unit card in play / put in play"
• "Hidden strength"
  • Text on the card: "Attach to a unit card. +4 HP"
• "Strategist enlisted"
  • Text on the card: "For one turn, all cards you play are discounted by 1 of any resource of your choice"
• "Fortune teller"
  • Text on the card: "May see the next 3 tactics card in the deck and re-arrange their order as well as put some on the bottom of the deck"
• "Surprise skirmish"
  • Text on the card: "May choose any of one your unit cards to fight an opposing player's unit card"

Map cards

Arabia

Flavor text:: “Arid desert with strategic elevations and cliffs, but sparse vegetation and water”

• (Land) Map features:
  • More elevation.
  • Less Wood Sites.
  • Wood Sites have less Wood.

Archipelago

• Flavor text:: “A group of large islands. You might not be the only inhabitant on yours”
• (Water) Map features:
  • Smaller grid (surrounded by water).
  • You share an island with an opponent (instead of an ally) in a 4P game.

Baltic

• Flavor text:: “An ocean with peninsulas and sheltered bays.”
• (Water) Map features:
  • A centre basin with a tonne of Fish.
  • The sides of the map have a tight chokepoint due to water and forests.
  • Extra Sheep

Black Forest

Flavor text:: “Islands of grass in a sea of trees. Follow the paths through the forest to find your allies and enemies”

• (Land) Map features:
  • More Wood Sites
  • Forests lead the way to other players

Coastal

Flavor text:: “Where the land meets the ocean, with plenty of water and a large landmass for battles by land or by sea.”

• (Water) Map features:
  • One side of the map has a small lake.
  • One side of the map has a big open ocean with lots of Fish

Continental

• Flavor text:: “A large body of land surrounded by the sea; rivers may separate players and teams”
• (Water) Map features:
  • Rivers go to the middle of the map

Crater Lake

• Flavor text:: “An island brimming with gold in the center of a caldera lake. Steep elevation and lack of trees make it hard to build.”
• (Water) Map features:
  • A smaller base
  • Lots of Gold in the central island.
  • More Wolves.

Fortress

• Flavor text:: “A walled city and all of the buildings you need to build up your forces quickly”
• Map features:
  • Land map with only a central NML
  • Play one Farm, House, Barracks, Watch Tower, a perimeter of Stone Walls with one Stone Gate.

Gold Rush

• Flavor text:: “A whole heap of gold and a few wolves in the middle of a desert”
• (Land) Map features:
  • Less Gold Sites around your base
  • More Gold Sites in the centre

Highlands

• Flavor text:: “Far from the ocean and heavily forested but with plenty of rivers and open space for maneuvers”
• (Land) Map features:
  • Rivers and a shallow crossing connecting you to different players.

Islands

• Flavor text:: “Each player starts alone on an island; uninhabited islands may be rich with resources, so be prepared to rule the sea.”
• (Water) Map features:
  • Players start on isolated islands with water around and in the middle.
  • There are unoccupied islands with more resources than your first one.

Mediterranean

• Flavor text:: “An island sea surrounded by land; souds deceptively peaceful”
• (Water) Map features:
  • A central sea with lots of Fish
  • Less Food on the mainland

Migration

• Flavor text:: “A tiny island that cannot support you for long before you must move to the mainland, where fighting is fierce.”
• (Water) Map features:
  • Players start on a tiny land and must expand to a larger island.
  • No Boars and further away Sheep.

Ghost Lake

• Flavor text:: “The central lake is frozen over, creating a no-man's land.”
• (Land) Map features:
  • More Wolves
  • Less resources (the lake is barren)
  • Cannot build on the lake

Team Islands

• Flavor text:: “One island shared by you and your allies, and another inhabited by your enemies. The islands are not connected by shallows, so beware of enemy Transport Ships.”
• (Water) Map features:
  • Your team is on one island and the enemy team is on the other island.

Nomad

• Flavor text:: “Your villagers begin scattered without a Town Center or Scout Cavalry. Will you build a town immediately or struggle to find the perfect location to settle?”
• (Water) Map features:
  • Your starting Town Center goes anywhere on the map.
  • Random terrain but certain water.

Arena

• Flavor text:: “The walls around your clearing are your protection from the carnage in the middle.”
• (Land) Map features:
  • A forest border
  • Combat happens in a central NML
  • Play a perimeter of Stone Walls with one Stone Gate.

Mongolia

• Flavor text:: “Cliffs abound on these parched and endless stepes”
• (Land) Map features:
  • Plenty of wild animals
  • An abundance of cliffs and forests in different orientations.

Oasis

• Flavor text:: “Nearly all of the wood is in the center of the map, so be prepared to be chased around and around.”
• (Land) Map features:
  • A forest covering a pond with Fish.
  • Extra Sheep

Salt Marsh

• Flavor text:: “Swampy lowlands full of shallows and rivers that can prohibit expansionistic building.”
• (Water) Map features:
  • A significant amount of the map is shallow terrain with water chokes.

Scandinavia

• Flavor text:: “In the northern wilderness the berry bushes have frozen, but there are hungry animals to be hunted and lots of gold”
• (Water) Map features:
  • Less Forage Bushes
  • Extra Deer
  • Three Boars
  • Water on the two sides
  • Stone is less abundant

Yucatan

• Flavor text:: “In the tropical forest food is abundant, but jaguars stalk beneath the canopy.”
• (Land) Map features:
  • Lots of food (e.g. 12+ Sheep, 2+ Boar, 6-8+ Deer, two+ Berries)