Roll Through the Ages is a dice game, so if you are opposed to such games, stop reading now. I enjoy dice games occasionally, but they’re not my favorites. This particular game has quite a bit to offer though, and I think it will see a great deal of play at home with my family as well as with my local gaming group.

The game was designed by Matt Leacock, who some may recognize as the designer of Pandemic. One of the first things you notice about Roll Through the Ages is that the publisher, Gryphon Games, used a huge amount of wood. I swear the box might as well be solid wood. The dice are wood. The scoreboards are wood with holes for wooden pegs.

The goal of the game is to be the first to build up your civilization by developing your infrastructure with new technologies while you create monuments to your glory. Your possibilities for each die are:

1. people
2. food
3. people or food
4. money
5. goods
6. skulls and goods

Skulls aren’t good, they just come with a couple of goods so you don’t feel so bad. You can re-roll any die or group of dice up to two times, but you may not re-roll skulls.

The number of dice rolled is determined by the number of cities you control. You build more cities by accumulating people, then you roll more dice. However, the more cities you control, the more you have to feed the people in the cities, so you have to keep rolling for food as well, or your people starve! Money allows you to buy developments which protect you from the effects of skulls or give you bonuses on rolls. Accumulating goods allow you to sell them for more money. Skulls are generally bad, and will create problems for your civilization, like plagues, invasions, and other disasters. Skulls may also affect your opponents civilizations.

A game typically takes about half an hour, and you get enough chunks of wood to play with up to four players. Roll Through the Ages is a great game and may just scratch a little bit of your Civilization itch. It may seem a like a lot to pay for a dice game, but good grief, the thing is beautiful and weighs a ton. Happy gaming!