BRONZE



OBJECTIVE OF BRONZE: The objective of Bronze is to be the player with the highest number of Victory Points when the game comes to an end.  

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 4 Players 

MATERIALS: 1 Gameboard, 70 Technology Cards, 120 Settlement Markers, 50 City Cards, 21 Trade Route Tokens, 12 Province Tokens, First Player Marker, and Instructions 

TYPE OF GAME: Area Control Board Game 

AUDIENCE: Ages 12 and Up 


OVERVIEW OF BRONZE 

Bronze takes place during the Bronze age, when the size of your army determined your future. The players act as different colonial leaders, each with the same goal. They want to give their people a better, brighter future, and the only way to do that is to take as much land as they can, all while building a great empire. Players must not only conquer lands, but they must also invest things, tame animals, construct buildings, and lay the foundations of statehood. 

SETUP 

To begin setup, the starting tile is placed in the middle of the playing area, and land tiles are randomly added face down to it, depending on how many players there are. The rest of the land tiles are placed to the side, as they will not be needed for the remainder of the game. If there are two players, a land tile that is closest to the starting tile is revealed. If there are three or four players, then two of them are revealed.  

Each player will choose a color to represent them throughout the game, collecting thirty settlement markers that match the color. If there are only two or three players, some city and technology cards are not used, and they need to be placed back into the box. The rest of the technology cards are shuffled and divided into five separate stacks. These stacks are placed face down. Four of them are used as the game pool, and the top cards are revealed.  

Trade route tokens are placed on the left side of the starting tile, beginning with ten-point tokens, then six-point tokens, and finally, three-point tokens. On each land tile, one province token is randomly placed. The players will choose a starting player and give them the starting player token. The city deck is shuffled and placed beside the board. The game is then ready to begin. 

GAMEPLAY 

During the game, players will take turns that rotate clockwise around the group. Throughout their turn, each player will complete the following four actions in consecutive order: draw a technology card from the pool, activate their technology cards, place settlements on the board, and earn trade routes and province tokens. 

When drawing a technology card, the player must choose a top card from any of the stacks available in the game pool, and they can choose to play it face up or face down. The next card in the stack must be revealed so that the other players are able to see what technology it holds. The chosen card is then played in front of the player, being placed in one of the four vertical columns that players create in their area.  

After a player has chosen a card, they will activate all available technology cards in their area. This occurs when the card is placed in its column. All cards to the left and right of it, along with cards that match and are in the same column are activated, allowing the player to use it to set up a settlement. Each card that is activated allows the player to place a settlement marker on an empty space found on the board. The place chosen has to meet the conditions that are present on the activated card.  

Once a player has placed three settlements in a line on a certain type of terrain, they earn the trade route token found on the left of the starting tile. Players are unable to earn the token if it has already been earned by another player. Players will continue to earn higher scoring tokens, such as the five-point and seven-point tokens when they have a line of five or seven settlements, returning the lower token if they have one.  

END OF GAME 

The game may come to an end one of three ways. Firstly, if two stacks of technology cards run out, then the game ends after one more round of gameplay. Secondly, if a player uses all of their settlement markers, then the game comes to an end after another round. Finally, the game comes to an end when all of the settlement spaces have been filled.  

Players will then tally their points to determine the winner. The player with the most Victory Points wins the game.  

Ellie Phillips
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