Age 1 Overview

This is a revised version of a featured forum article by teasel.

There are basically two ways to play Age 1 in the base game.  The first is to start building up your board and/or hand with cards like Sailing, Domestication, The Wheel, and Code of Laws.  The other is to try to score as quickly as possible.  Scoring is achieved through Metalworking and Clothing, and more rarely, Agriculture and Pottery.

You can also tech or attack, but neither are very potent in Age 1, and both the scoring and the building options are more powerful.  Special mention goes to Masonry which let you achieve Monument with relative ease.

Scoring

Clothing

Playing against Clothing is the main reason to build out your board as quickly as possible. A common newbie mistake is to not play more cards and instead to just keep drawing (often because they want to search for cards for Masonry), letting the opponent score as many as 3 cards per Clothing dogma.  This is huge, especially since it lets your opponent achieve Monument with a double Clothing activation (and thus making Masonry pointless).  So if you see Clothing, at an absolute minimum, try to build at least have 3 colors on board so your opponent can’t achieve Monument, and ideally get to five colors.  (Melding Pottery or Agriculture can help you block leaves and therefore share Clothing…distasteful as that might sound.)

If you are playing with Clothing, the key is to pair it with cards that draw.  The Wheel is great, but since it’s also green,  you can’t have it with Clothing.  Domestication can be a nice way of getting a bit more out of just drawing, and Mysticism increases the odds of drawing a new color (though it risks covering Clothing).

Even if you can’t meld with Clothing, I am happy to execute Clothing as long as I’m scoring at least 2-3 points each time, and definitely if I can score 3 cards twice for Monument.

Metalworking

There are 15 cards in the Age 1 deck, and each player starts with 2 of them.  Of those 15 cards, 9 contain a castle – generally good odds.  Your odds are somewhat lower in Age 2 and 3 (5/10 and 4/10 containing castles, respectively), but the payoff is even greater.  So Metalworking is a solid card throughout the first few ages for scoring.

What makes it so good is that on top of that, you get a standard draw action.  But it’s even better than a standard draw action — it’s a guaranteed no-castle draw, meaning that you are getting good symbols for future splays and you aren’t vulnerable to Gunpowder.

And finally, it makes Monument via Masonry basically impossible, since with every action you are draining quite a few of the castles from the supply.

Pottery

Don’t bother reading the text on Pottery.  Here’s what the card effectively does: “If all the pile below it are empty, score a card from your hand, and then draw a card from the same age”.  This is a surprisingly fast scorer because it continues to replenish itself — it’s quite useful starting around Age 2 or Age 3.

The other nice thing about Pottery is that it has wonderful symbols which combo very well with (or help deny) Fermenting from Age 2.

Agriculture

Agriculture is worse than Pottery generally because it doesn’t draw, but it doesn’t require empty piles and ramps up a little faster.  In particular, when returning Age 4 cards, you get 5 points, the score differential required for the next achievement.  So Agriculture can be pretty powerful if you tech up quickly.  It can also be used to end the game by returning an Age 10 card.

Like Pottery, it has great symbols, but unlike Pottery, it can’t contribute to your Fermenting.

Board

Sailing

~Sailing is the first of many “draw and meld” cards.  These are all useful as they let you build your board quickly.  Building your board gives you a symbol advantage and options.  Sailing is also very useful later on as a way to force your opponent to meld, hopefully covering up a good card.

Domestication

This is sort of like Sailing but more controlled, since you pick from your hand rather than whatever is on the top of the deck.  But this can also be a disadvantage after the ages pass, since Sailing can meld from the piles, but Domestication will force you to get rid of all the lowest cards from your hand.  The “Draw a 1″ clause means that you will always be drawing the lowest cards available, possibly hampering your Domestication efforts.  Like Sailing, this can be a good way to force your opponent to meld undesirable cards.

Mysticism

One of the absolute best ways to build your board.  Once you have all five colors, Mysticism is like Sailing with an extra draw action!  No other card in the game allows you to draw-meld-draw.  I try to avoid covering it up since it’s an amazing way to build both your hand and your board at the same time.  Eventually, though, it will overmeld itself or succumb to Gunpowder.

Drawing

The Wheel

Draw 2 Age 1 cards, there is not a lot to say.  If you share, it’s “Draw 3″ vs “Draw 2″, and hopefully you draw higher-tech cards.  It’s a key factor in Masonry (more on that later) and in general is a fine way to build your hand.  It won’t draw you absurd amounts like Fermenting or Paper, but it’s also more reliable than either.

Stealing/Board Screwing

Archery

Archery lets you take the highest card from your opponent’s hand, and in return, they draw a 1.  Archery forces a teched up opponent to always have his hand empty so they don’t get their card stolen and their tech advantage negated.  It’s easy to use as teched up opponents usually don’t have many castles, but otherwise it’s a pretty dull card as there are many ways to catch up in tech.

In multiplayer Archery is a lot more interesting, since it becomes superior to just drawing if you can hit multiple opponents.

City States

A card to watch out for in the early game.  Against City States, either have some unwanted castle cards to transfer (it’s unpleasant to be forced to hand over The Wheel or Domestication), stay under 3 castles, or maintain crown advantage.

If I have City States, I tend to hold it in hand and meld/execute on my turn so as to surprise my opponent when he has something worth handing over.

Oars

Usually a superior option to just drawing, but really a bit of a last resort as far as “screwage” goes.  More commonly it is used when you share the dogma and can draw two cards off the second dogma (thanks to the sharing bonus) instead of just one.

Tech Up

Writing

This is rapidly obsoleted.  It has decent symbols, though, and is fine if you share it and get to draw two cards.

Tools

Getting 3 cards is pretty easy, especially if you use The Wheel‘s dogma.  A decent choice if the superior options (scoring or melding) aren’t available.  It’s especially nice if you land Paper and can jump to Gunpowder quickly.  Tools‘ other dogma can be handy if the piles under 3 have emptied; return a 3 and then draw three 3s, thus netting you 2 cards like The Wheel.

Splaying

Code of Laws

Unless you really don’t have much better else to do, Code of Laws is not especially helpful. It’s a good way to get rid of cards you don’t want (e.g., using it to tuck 1′s away so you can use Domestication on a 2), and also turbocharge Paper, but otherwise I generally don’t bother with its dogma.

Special

Masonry

Masonry lets you meld multiple cards, but the cards you meld must all have castles on them.  These cards are not especially helpful later on, so the main reason you want to use Masonry is to get Monument for cheap.  But it is important to build your board quickly (see, e.g., Clothing) and delaying too long hoping to claim Monument with Masonry is often a loser.

Remember also that Masonry means you’re melding cards with castles, and those cards are only useful early game.  Later they become liabilities against Gunpowder and unimportant in splays.  This is another reason not to fixate on Masonry Monument.