Some of these cards also represent various natural or man-made catastrophes. The other cards represent cultural advances, whether scientific, artistic or political. In the standard game each player starts with one tribe in that tribe's designated start area. The tribe then multiplies and begins to spread out into adjacent areas. The mapboard is divided up into regions which vary greatly in fertility on a range of 1 to 5, this number being the amount of tribal counters that can be supported before famine eliminates any surplus.
Some regions also give an advantage to building cities thereon.
This is done by moving a special tribal counter one square forward at the end of each turn, starting in the Stone Age and finishing off before the Dark Age. Movement is not automatic, however, as there are certain prerequisites at each stage of the game, usually in the form of the number of cities or cards held. It is even possible for a player to go backwards on the AST, conjuring up pictures of a culture plunged into barbarous darkness. In practice most games end well before the end of the AST is reached because there is simply not enough time to finish. Turns flow very swiftly in the first hour as each tribe multiplies and spills across the board, but once cities and card trading come into operation then things slow down considerably.