The game comes in a quite large box which contains some lovely little citizen pieces.

The object is score the most VPs by Year 6. These points come from 1VP = 1 citizen and 3VP for having a city with a coloured arch of each colour, (which represent education, health and culture).

Players begin with two cities, each with a castle and 3 citizens (3000 people). During the game, each player needs to increase their population and expand their cities. To do this you need food from farms. City growth has limits, however. Plus, their are serious repercussions if you cannot keep your citizens fed. Unfed citizens wander off in search of food, which means buildings are unsupported, which means they fall into disarray and are demolished!

During the main part of each Year, each player gets to have 5 rounds in which they can play one of 3 action cards they hold or a political card. The action cards allow a player to either take 2 gold, start a new city or build a small building. There are six different small buildings:
Farmhouse(no arch) produces food when next to a farmland
Quarry(no arch) produces 1 gold coin when next to a mountain range
Market(no arch) needed for a city to grow larger than 5 citizens
School(black arch) gives an education service point
Statue(white arch) gives a culture service point
Fountain(blue arch) gives a health service point and allows a city with a market to grow beyond 8 citizens

Politics cards have two functions:
Build larger buildings (to gain more arches for VPs) or to allow other actions.
There are always 7 politics cards available by the board. These allow the building of larger buildings which are worth more in service points, or allows building by paying gold, increase service points by paying gold, gain citizens by paying gold, increase food production or check the 'voice of the people'.
The voice of the people expresses the citizens wishes for that year in terms of education, health and culture. This can cause citizens to move to or away from your cities, which isn't always a good thing as you could find buildings unsupported or new mouths to feed. In the final year this can cost you a whopping 5 VPs!

SUMMARY:
This is another game filled with those agonising decisions that are a joy to play.
You need to expand your citizens to gain VPs, but this means more mouths to feed. As a city grows it gets close to other cities which can cause the loss/gain of citizens to mess up your carefully laid plans!
You have to construct culture, health and education buildings to gain VPs, but this can attract citizens which means more mouths to feed, so more farms are needed.
Five actions a turn seems generous - except you probably need double that each turn!

A game that requires careful planning, constant watching and juggling of priorities. Not to everyones liking, but those 'agonising decisions' each turn make it a winner for me.

Review by Brian