Western Empires

From the publisher:

Western Empires is a board game for 5 to 9 players and covers the development of ancient civilizations over 8000 years of history. Western Empires can take up to 12 hours to complete, and still yet, it has a simple mechanism and is easy to learn. The players lead their civilizations, as they expand and collapse, from the Stone Age, through the Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age. Western Empires provides a full day of fun for larger groups.

Though it may seem at first glance, Western Empires is not a wargame. Yes, conflict may be involved, but rather it is a game about history, culture, trade, development, and... calamities. The civilizations involved are all situated around the Mediterrainean Sea: The Romans, The Egyptians, The Celts and The Minoans. Players develop their own unique civilization in arts, crafts, science, civics and religion. Each player starts his civilization with a single population token, 8000 BC, but grows and grows over time, and eventually cities can be built. Cities of course bring wealth and fortune, but also… natural calamities such as epidemics, famine or earthquakes, or civil calamities such as pirate attacks, slave revolts and civil disorder.

This wealth is expressed in trade cards. The more cities, the more cards a player gets. These cards provide both trading commodities, and calamities. Trading is the heart of the game. Develop religion, democracy, improve science… 51 different advances can be developed in five different categories.