THE PERSISTENCE OF CULTURE
by Charles Bahl
from THE GENERAL, 30, #3. pp 54-55.

This article first appeared in Declination (a fan 'zine dedicated primarily to AH's HISTORY OF THE WORLD). We're delighted to reprint this article for your use.

     Although Empires may come and go conquering their neighbors and, in turn, being conquered -- their cultural achievements may often last for millennia. This feature of civilization is modeled abstractly in HISTORY OF THE WORLD by the rules governing Monuments. This article augments those rules with a new set of Event Cards (below) that represent specific cultural developments in human history. With these cards your Empire can develop Law or Commerce or Architecture. It can even attempt to spread its culture to other, less fortunate, Empires. But beware! Your hard-earned achievements can be stolen by competing civilizations, or worse yet, can be destroyed by them, returning the world to another Dark Ages.

Culture Event Cards
     The rules for using these special Culture Event cards are given below. Cross-referenced HWD rules are indicated by the acronym HWD.
     1.1 EVENTS: During preparation for play, the players sort and shuffle the Culture Event cards in the same way as the other Event cards (HWD Rule 2.2) that is, players will now have ten piles (instead of nine piles) of seven cards each.
     2.1 PLAYER HAND: Each player randomly draws one card from each pile to form his or her hand of ten Event cards with one card of each color (including one Culture Event card). Players return any remaining Event cards face down to the box (HWD Rule 2.21).
     3.1 EVENT DECLARATION: Culture Event cards are declared in the same way as other Event cards (HWD Rule 3.4). The Time Frame rule also applies (HWD Rule 4.1). But unlike other Event cards, Culture cards are not discarded when declared.
     3.11 CULTURE CARDS: When a Culture card is declared, the player plays it face up beside the board, and places an Army marker on top of the card in the space provided. This Army must be one from the player's Empire for the current Epoch. (This army does not come from the Empire's current builds. It is drawn from the stock of available Army markers, and serves only to remind the players what Empire possesses the Culture card.) The declared Culture card belongs to this Empire and is considered to be "located" in the Empire's Capital. (See 5.1 below). Minor Empires cannot play or possess Culture cards. Empires without Capitals cannot play or possess Culture cards.
     4.1 SCORING CULTURE CARDS: The Empire retains its Culture cards from turn to turn unless they are destroyed, captured, or transferred. A Culture card cannot be given or traded to another player. It can only pass to another player via capture. (See      5.1 below.) If any of a player's Empires possess Culture cards at the end of the player's turn, he or she receives the Victory Points listed on the cards during the Victory Point Phase (HWD Rule 3.9). The player receives points for all of his or her Culture cards (not just the ones possessed by the Empire of the current Epoch). The player receives Victory Points each turn the cards are in play, not just on the turn they are declared or captured. A player does not receive Victory Points for Culture cards held unplayed in his or her Event card hand.
     5.1 CAPTURING CULTURE CARDS: Any Culture cards possessed by an Empire are considered to be "located" in the Empire's Capital. When the Land containing the Capital is conquered, the Culture cards located there are captured by the conquering Empire and are marked with the capturing Empire's Army markers. The Culture cards are considered to be immediately relocated to the capturing Empire's Capital. This transfer takes place even if a player conquers a Capital belonging to his or her own Faction.
     5.11 DESTROYING CULTURE CARDS: If a Capital is captured by a Minor Empire, by an Empire without a Capital, or falls to Treachery, Rebellion, Civil War or Barbarians, the Culture cards are not transferred. Instead, they are considered destroyed (permanently removed from the game).
     6.1 TRANSFERRING CULTURE CARDS: Culture cards can be transferred between a Faction's Capitals at the very end of the player's Expansion Phase, following all: placement, combat, Monument builds, and fort builds.
     6.11 TRANSFER RESTRICTIONS: Culture cards can be transferred between the Capitals of any of the player's Empires--both Past and Present Empires. Transfers to Minor Empires are not allowed, however. Culture cards may not be transferred to the Capitals of Empires belonging to other players.
     6.12 TRANSFER PATH: For the transfer to take place, a path of friendly, contiguous: Lands, Seas, or Oceans must exist between the, Capitals. To be friendly, each Land/Sea/Ocean, must be occupied by at least one marker of the player's Faction. Oceans used as part of a path may be occupied by opposing Factions as long as the transferring player has at least one fleet present. The path can be of any length and may be any combination of Land, Sea, or Ocean areas as long as they are contiguous. The path may not contain Barren Lands or' vacant Lands/Seas/Oceans. As an exception to the above restrictions, the transfer path can cross a Strait if the intervening Sea is vacant or friendly-occupied (not enemy occupied).
     6.13 MARKING THE NEW OWNER: Transferred Culture cards are considered to be immediately relocated to the new Capital. The presence of the Culture card at the new Capital is indicated by placing the Army marker of the appropriate Empire on the card. As long as: the required paths exist (see 6.12 above), any and all Culture cards may be freely exchanged between a player's Faction Capitals.
     7.1 SPECIAL CULTURE CARDS: All Culture cards are worth one Victory Point per turn, except the Science card which is worth two points per turn. The Commerce and Democracy cards have two listed Time Frames (for example, I-III and VI-VII). These cards may be declared during either of their listed Time Frames. If in play, these cards provide Victory Points during all Epochs, not just those listed on the cards.

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