Review Details

Roll Through the Ages

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on September 22, 2010):

Roll Through the Ages is a dice game by Matt Leacock (designer of Pandemic) which follows the theme on the well regarded Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization (by Vlaada Chvátil). Players compete to score the most point by building monuments and cultural developments.

The game’s dice represent cities which produce resources. A die face depicting workers is used to build additional cities (i.e. you will roll more dice next turn) or monuments, coin is used to buy developments which each bend the game rules in your favour, grain is needed to upkeep your cities’ food supply, etc. Yatzee-style, a player has up to 3 rerolls of their dice each turn.

Some downsides to the game are that it only supports 4 players, the theme felt tacked-on at times, and the strategies may be a bit too simple. However, if you wanted to play with 5-8 players, using 2 copies of the game or improvising a peg board alternative should work. Also, sometimes simple is a good thing!

The game is quick to play, easy to learn, and family-friendly. Everyone I have played with has immediately asked “Can we play again?”, surely the mark of a great game! The game bits are well-made; the wooden dice are big and chunky, and the peg board resource trackers are a nice touch.