"This game simulates the growth of ancient empires. Each player leads a young empire and controls its growth through its development. The units used to represent people are populations and monetary units are measured in gold points." "Use a piece of hex paper and color equal numbers of squares green for grassland and yellow for desert. Each player chooses a starting grassland hex and puts a city and 3 population points on that hex. No two starting hexes may be closer than three hexes from each other." The players build their empires by constructing cities, roads, temples, walls, marketplaces, and libraries. There are also three types of military forces available to attack opposing empires: Soldiers, Swordsmen, and Horsemen. The game also covers concepts such as disasters, technological advances, taxes, and population migration. "Victory occurs when, at the end of his turn, a player has 20 victory points or has destroyed or captured all enemy cities, armies and populations." Victory Points are scored for cities, temples, and technological advances.