Do you like a little bit of chaos and unpredictability in your game play? Or do you prefer a game with scheming, subtlety and a little bit of turnabout? I may have a game for you that has a bit of both in it. Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East is a lite civilization building game that sees 1-6 players take on the role of an ancient power to see if they can build up their civilization and conquer the opposing great civilizations of the ancient Middle East. The game uses the same system as the first game in the series called Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea but does add some new tricks. First, the game now adds terrain. Second, the game not only has more playable civilizations (17 basic civilizations plus several additional civilizations in historical scenarios) but also gives some civilizations a second or even third choice for where to place their Homeland. The game is about competition to gain the most area in the ancient world, spreading your cultures influence and religion and reaping the economic benefits of your conquests. This competition comes in the form of gaining Victory Points through building cities and acquiring gods and sacking and looting cities through war and domination of the sea.

In Action Point 1, we took a look at the Game Board and its features, showing off the new Terrain and other aspects. In Action Point 2, we dove into the Growth Phase, including a discussion about how you acquire disks, deploy those disks and the purpose of spreading your culture. In Action Point 3, we explored the Card Phase and took a look at the different types of cards that appear in the Fate Deck. In this Action Point, we will dive a bit deeper into the new addition of Deities, review those cards and their abilities and then discuss how they are acquired.

Deity Cards

I covered this topic briefly in the last post where we looked at the Card Phase but wanted to go a bit more in detail regarding Deity Cards and how they work as well as share the different Deities that are available. In my opinion, Deities are very important and can really give you not only a jump start on scoring Victory Points but can help you to establish and highlight a chosen strategy. Deities really took the place of Wonder Cards from the first game in the series Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea but they also added in some new tricks.

Deity Cards begin the game face-up next to the board, in a sort of tableau that all players can see and have access to, with their corresponding stickered block, which represents the Deity’s temple, resting on top of the card. There are eight such small blocks with 7 stickered with the name and unique symbols of the Deities portrayed as well as one block to indicate Monotheism. These small blocks are used on the board to raise temples and identify the current location of Deities and the central temple of a civilization practicing Monotheism.

One of the first things I think that players need to do is review their Civilization’s strengths and advantages and then review all of the available Deities in order to have an idea of which of them will most benefit and accentuate their strategy. The Deity powers are very powerful, typically allowing a player to break the rules or provide additional actions or benefits, and it is important to consider your options. Typically, the first round is spent with players buying an available Deity. This is the case because everyone not only has the resources needed to do so at the start (we will discuss the cost later) but also because they are trying to immediately take advantage of the abilities from the get go.

Card Layout

Each Deity card includes several elements, some of which are for game purposes and some which are just for flavor. Let’s take a look at the anatomy of these Deity Cards. In this section, we will use the picture below with roman numerals and arrows pointing to certain portions of the cards.

I. Code – If the card has a special Code in the upper left hand corner, such as an N, this refers to the card type and gives a hint to what the ability of the Deity is. For example, a red N would indicate the Deity acts similarly to a Negate Card. This ability is only found on 2 of the Deity Cards including God of the Skies and God of Peace, as none of the other Deity Cards have a Code, and can be used to cancel all effects of another card of a specified type. God of the Skies can be used during the Competition Phase to negate or cancel any 1 Competition Card. God of Peace can be used at any time during the Card Phase to cancel out any 1 non-Event Card. These Deities can be used each and every round during a Turn to cancel the specified card type and are quite powerful as you can use them to really somewhat control the negative impact to your civilization or to another civilization that you might be working with to gain the upper hand. Any time you can control things, even a little bit in this game, that is a good thing.

II. Flavor – As was mentioned earlier, there is a specific icon or symbol that is included at the top of each of the Deity Cards. This is intended to slightly differentiate the cards, at least initially upon a visual inspection, and serves no other purpose other than a bit of flavor.

III. Name – These names given to the Deities are fairly generic and do not necessarily represent historical named deities. I think that the reason for this is that there are only 7 such Deity Cards, with an additional block representing Monotheism, and these cards have to be kept generic as there are over 16 different civilizations represented in the game covering a period of nearly 4,000 years. Specifically assigning each of the civilizations there historical deities would have required the game to have a lot more making it more complex than is necessary. These Deities are generic and really focused on the mechanics of the game.

IV. Text – The text of the Deity Cards simply explain to the players as to when the card can be used and what its effects are. It is important to remember that each of the cards are different, although they might have similar effects, and can be used to supplement a specific strategy based on the civilization that the player is controlling.

V. Legend – Some of the Deity Cards contain italicized instructions for the player as to what happens to the card after it’s been played. These instructions are helpful and typically are also designed to remind all players that the Deity Cards agility has been used during this turn.

VI. ID Number – Each Deity Card has a unique numerical identifier that then corresponds to a more explicit explanation with some additional details in the playbooks.

Look at Each of the Deities

Let’s now look at each of the Deities that are available. We have already covered God of the Skies and God of Peace so we won’t be taking a closer look at those.

Father of the Gods

Father of the Gods is associated with Turn Order and manipulating where the owner’s disk is located on the Turn Order Track. Going first can make a big difference on occasion, but this is the Deity that I have found others don’t choose that often. If the Turn Order Reset ability is not used, the player can take 1 Mina from the bank to add to their own treasury.

God of the Dead

God of the Dead is a way to revive cards that have been played and are placed in the discard pile. The ability allows the player to shuffle the cards in the discard pile and then draw 3 of those cards randomly and add them to their hand. Having extra cards is nice as they are in essence the currency and heart of the game and are used to gain advantages during the game in the various phases. If this discard fishing pulls out an Event Card, the player can draw a replacement card.

God of War

As the name implies, the God of War deals with the Competition Phase, which is where civilizations clash and contest the control of areas on the board to gain access to more resources and victory points. At the beginning of a single Competition each turn, the use of the God of War gives the owner civilization 2 white Competition Disks that they can place into any single area that is being contested. This gives a huge advantage to a player in this one Competition as the addition of 2 disks is enough to guarantee a victory, or at least to cause the other player to have to spend their resources in the form of discarding cards or spending Mina from their treasury to prevent the loss of their disks. It is never a guarantee of victory, but this ability of adding more disks to a Competition is huge and will create opportunities each turn for the owner to expand their boundaries.

God of the Forge

God of the Forge is an economic engine as it will provide the owner 2 Minas to their treasury at the end of the Growth Phase. These Minas can then be held over to use in the next turn’s Growth Phase or can be used during the Competition Phase to save disks from being eliminated in the Competition Phase. This is a very good deity and one that many players will overlook because the ability isn’t quite “sexy” enough. But it is solid and having more resources to use, especially during Competitions, is always a good thing.

Earth Mother Goddess

The Earth Mother Goddess gives the owner a jump on growth and can really make a big difference early in the game when players are scrapping over control of as many areas as possible to expand their economy. The Earth Mother Goddess will give the owner 2 additional disks during the Acquisition Step of the Growth Phase thereby increasing their placement ability.

As you can see, these Deity Cards are very important and players must grab the best ones before other players can. So, how do you establish a Deity? Let’s take a look at this process.

Establishing a Deity

During the Card Phase, each civilization may establish its Deity from those that are available. To establish a Deity, the civilization must Control its Homeland and also there must be no opposing civilization’s disks present in that area. The work of establishing a Deity requires the civilization to have a higher level of thinking and if they are in danger, or in the midst of a major ongoing war with adjacent invaders, they will turn more to other pursuits such as Competition or playing mean spirited cards to hold the advance of their enemies. It is also very important to remember that each civilization may only ever have 1 established Deity Card on its Civilization Display at a time. This does not preclude the civilization from having captured other player’s Deities and to be storing them on their display. If, and only if these pre-requisites are met, can a civilization obtain a Deity.

The cost of establishing a Deity is the spending of 5 Resources, which can be made up of several different options, and in any different combination.

  • The return of a minimum of 2 of their disks from the board back to their Supply.
  • The payment of 1 or more Mina from its treasury.
  • The discard of 1 or more cards from hand.

At least 2 of the 5 required resources must come from the first option of returning disks from the board. The remaining 3 resources may comprise any combination of the listed items.

So what is the benefit of a Deity aside from its ability found on the Deity Card? The answer to that is lots! When established, the Deity will provide the civilization with the ability to now play a Religion Card for its listed effect. The player can also use the special Temple Granary option as noted on their Civilization Display. The ability gives the player the option of taking 1 Mina rather than 2 of its disks during the Growth Phase. But, in order for the civilization to use that ability, it must have at least one of its disks present in the area containing the established Deity’s temple. The owing player will also gain 1VP during the Victory Tally Step of each turn’s Reckoning Phase, but only if it has at least one of its disks present in the area containing the established Deity’s temple.

Also, capturing your opponent’s Deities is a real focus as well as there are several benefits that are derived from this action. A Deity may be captured and taken as a trophy by the victor. At the end of the Growth, Card or Competition Phase, if an opposing civilization Controls another civilization’s Homeland, the temple of any active Deity, represented by its stickered block, is immediately removed from the map and placed on the appropriate section of the victorious civilization’s Display.
As a reward for capturing an active Deity, the victor immediately gains both 1VP and 1 Mina as Loot. This will cause each player to monitor the status of their opponent’s Homeland and their Deities as there are opportunities to deny your opponent the use of the Deity’s ability but also future acquisition of Victory Points and Minas from Temple Granaries. The captured Deity also means that no other gods will align with the defeated player unless they play the Monotheism Card or the Prophet Card which will allow them to establish another deity.

I hope that you enjoyed this look at Deity Cards and their special abilities. The addition of the Deity Cards didn’t really change the game all that much, as they really just took the place of Wonders from Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea, but their new rules are more interesting and will add some depth to the players experience.

In Action Point 5, which is the conclusion to this series, we will take a look into the Competition Phase including Contested Areas and how to resolve them, how allies affect this outcome and the looting of vanquished cities.

-Grant