(from the back of the game box) It took the Pharaohs a lifetime to build the pyramids. Entire dynasties rose and fell before the Great Wall of China was completed. Yet these and other monumental tasks unfold before your eyes against the panoramic background of the rise and fall of the world's greatest civilizations won by men in arms ranging from ancient Sumerian charioteers to the Kaiser's stormtroopers. But the road to empire runs through seven Epochs - each barred by a host of calamities such as plague, civil war, barbarian incursions, earthquakes, floods, and holy wars announced in animated splendor to decide the fate of nations.