In my previous post on AGES I looked at the cards that make up the game. This post continues looking at the game AGES, by looking at how to set up the game ready for play.
In total you will be creating seven decks that are used in the main play area.
The Elite Deck
First separate out the fourteen elite character cards. Then remove the four starting elite characters from the elite characters and put them to one side. The remaining ten elite cards will then be shuffled and placed face down on the table (see the diagram below label 1, and yes I know I show them face up but that's for illustration purposes to show the card is there). Then the four starting elite characters get placed next to the elite deck face up (see diagram below label 4) to form the elite deck trade row.
- Elite deck
- Gold coin deck
- Main deck trade row
- Elite deck trade row
- Destroyed cards pile
- Main deck discard pile
- Icon decks
- Main deck
Gold Coin Deck
Next find the twenty two gold coin cards. These will form the gold coin deck. Place the gold coin deck below the Elite deck (diagram above label 2).
Icon Decks
Now you need to find all the icon cards for the four icon types. Separate them into four piles, one for each icon. There should be twenty icon cards for each icon type. Place face up the four icon decks next to the gold coin deck as shown in the above diagram label 7. It doesn't matter the order the icons are arranged, but for aesthetic reasons I like to arrange them so the are in order to match the games name AGES.
Main Deck
To create the main deck from the remaining cards remove all the jester cards and single value gold coin cards and put these to one side. These will be used to create a players starting deck later on.
You should now be left with four gold bar cards, character cards, event cards, location cards, weapon cards and relic cards.
Take the cards just listed and shuffle them together to form the main deck. Place the main deck face down in the location shown in the diagram above (label 8). Then take the top five cards from the main deck and place them face up to form the main deck trade row (label 3 in the diagram above).
Main Deck Discard Pile
Some of the cards in the main deck when played get you to discard a card from the main deck trade row or discard a card from the main deck itself. The discarded cards get placed face down into this pile (label 6 on the diagram above). If the main deck ever runs out of cards the discard pile gets shuffled and then becomes the new main deck.
Destroyed Cards Pile
Any cards that get destroyed get placed here (label 5 on the above diagram) face up. The cards here are dead for the rest of the game. However you are allowed to look through this pile anytime you like during play.
Players Deck
The final decks that you need to create are the individual player decks for each player. The initial player decks are made up from eight of the gold coin cards and two jester cards for a total of ten cards for each player.
These ten cards are then shuffled and the player deals them self five cards for their starting hand.
So that's the game AGES set up ready to play. In the next post we will look at playing the game and organising the players play area.
Posted by me using my iPad and the Blogsy app