opponents three (or more) of your commodity cards in exchange for three (or more) of theirs. You must trade the same number of cards. Notably, only two of the trade cards need to be true for a valid trade to take place, which often discourages trading more than three cards. Once you collect enough commodities, you can spend them to purchase tools, which range from pottery or astronomy to democracy or monotheism. By acquiring these tools, players' civilizations gain victory points. The tools also give each civilization particular advantages during the gameplay. Tools are divided into categories such as Science, Craft, and Civics. Purchasing a tool of one category normally entitles you to a discount to further purchases in that category and often also entitles you to a discount to the purchase of specific tools. Some tools have prerequisites for purchase. By collecting useful tools and maintaining as many cities as possible on the board, your civilization advances through the ages. At the end of each turn, civilizations with enough cities and enough tools in appropriate categories are allowed to advance along the game's turn track, the Archaeological Succession Table (AST). Different civilizations have slightly different entry requirements to the spaces on the AST. A civilization unfortunate enough to end the turn with no cities at all will go backwards on the AST. Once one or more players have reached the end of the AST (for which 2000 victory points and 5 cities are needed), the game ends and the winner is decided based on a calculation of victory points. The majority of victory points come from purchase of tools and progress along the AST. Cities and stock at the end of the game provide a minor boost to victory points, sometimes sufficient to decide a close-fought game. Reception The game was commercially unsuccessful, and sold fewer than 20,000 units by April 1998. Computer Gaming Worlds Bob Proctor wrote, "This game is perfect for those who play the board game, or for those who don't mind long, involving strategy play." While he found the game to be "a good translation of the original" in its single-player mode, he found its multiplayer options limited. References External links 1995 video games Avalon Hill video games DOS games DOS-only games Multiplayer and single-player video games North America-exclusive video games Video games based on board games Video games developed in the United States World