Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Dark Ages is a historically-based civilization-building game that features an innovative action selection mechanism. As long as your action markers remain on the board, you may be able to gain secondary bonus actions whenever you or another player repeat the action.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Action Points
Spend a limited allowance of points across several possible actions each turn.
Area Majority
Compete to have the strongest presence in areas that award control or points.
Dice Rolling
Roll dice to introduce uncertainty into actions, production, movement, or resolution.
Area Movement
Move pieces between connected regions rather than along individual spaces.
Income
Receive recurring resources according to your position, assets, or development.
Read the full game description
Dark Ages is a historically-based civilization-building game that features an innovative action selection mechanism. As long as your action markers remain on the board, you may be able to gain secondary bonus actions whenever you or another player repeat the action. While Dark Ages features objectives commonly found in 4X games — encouraging you to explore nearby regions, expand your territory, exploit the resources, and exterminate your opponents — it does so featuring several Euro-centric mechanisms. Collect resources from lands under your control, using them to build up your cities and fortifications. Some building types provide several ways for you to gain important in-game advantages, while others enhance your military strength or simply score you victory points. As you expand your territory, you will lay claim to noble titles, acquire new technologies, and train your military units. Each region and leader offer asymmetrical choices with their unique abilities. —description from the publisher Dark Ages: Holy Roman Empire has the same core mechanisms as Dark Ages: Heritage of Charlemagne, but it focuses on Central Europe. As a result, it has a different game board. In addition, the card mixes are different, with different unique Culture Cards for the rulers, technologies and units. Furthermore, Heritage of Charlemagne contains a set of Vassals, which are missing from Holy Roman Empire. Instead, this version has a set of Relics. The two sets also differ in micro-expansions ("modules") that are included. Holy Roman Empire contains the Crusades and The Pope modules.