How it all started

This scene by Simon Roy shows a clan of Riders launching a raid backed by powerful fire magic.





What is it about?

The art in Six Ages is colorful, evocative and rich in detail. My favorite artists are Jan Pospisil and Simon Roy.

How to play

For my second game, I created the Damánkali clan. This is a summary of the choices I made.

The Sacred Time screen where you allocate magic points to different areas to help you along the coming year.

Mmm... I don't know, Doren. They helped us train her. Should we really decline their generous offer now?

In my temple to Elmal, I keep active the Flaming Lance and Steadfast blessings. Osara's blessing is also useful for combats.

My best trader Sharyu reenacts the deeds of Ekarna the goddess of Trade. The colorful art is by Michelle Lockamy.





Let's raid the Para-Un clan! They are haughty and have too many fat cows!

I hate the Wheel clans, but I sent the Paral-Un some gifts to see if we could at least stop attacking each other so often.

Oh, no! Those damned bandits kidnapped some of the children of our clan. What would you do?

Mmm... Should we believe the words of this guy? Should we attack him instead? Or should we help the slaves to escape?

Tips

The art by Jan Pospisil is wonderfully detailed and evocative.

Summing up

Release trailer for the iOS version

What's next?

Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind is just the first episode in a series of videogames.

is a videogame byset in the fantasy world of. It combines several genres: interactive fiction, roleplaying and strategy, and it is even classified under "Simulators" by Steam. If you are intrigued by this strange combination, keep reading thisIt did not take long, after A Sharp released' predecessor, for fans of the game to start hypothesizing aboutA Sharp could perhaps make using the. Why not a game about the Praxian tribes? What about a game about the Ralian city-states? Or perhaps about Orlanthi during the Lunar occupation of Sartar? There were hundreds of options, and most fans would have been happy with anotheronly with new scenes. However,, A Sharp's owner, delayed the creation of a sequel until he could come up with a really nifty idea.And so it was that inhad his epiphany. Just 15 years after the release of the first Gloranthan videogame, A Sharp finally started working on a sequel. The twist overwas that this was going to beEach installment, beginning with, is going to be set on a different age of the history of, but following the same culture: the, Glorantha's first horse riding culture.is the lead designer, and he teamed up again with, who is responsible for all the writing. In June 2018 the game was released for iPhone and iPad, and in October 2019 for Mac and PC.Inyou guidewho have just settled in new lands after fleeing the freezing cold in the north. The Hyalorings, also called, are a semi-nomadic horse-riding and sun-worshipping human culture. They live in, a fantasy world similar to our ancient Earth during the Bronze Age as depicted inor. The game is set during the, a mythical period before the creation of Time, when deities sometimes walked among mortals.In the game, you have to, both material, such as cattle and crops, and magical, such as blessings from the gods and spirits, in order to. To achieve this goal, you also need tothe land around you,and. On top of that, you also need toduring interactive scenes, all of which will haveFinally, the game has athat will slowly emerge during play, and you need to deal with it as good as you can in order to "win the game" and play it through to the end. Since the game is set during a mythical age of, these are the events that will becomefor the descendants of your clan's future generations. It is also the main difference with King of Dragon Pass, because in that game the title told you your goal (become king or queen), but inyou need to find it out as you play. In spite of that, whatever end you achieve in your particular game, you will have generated a cool story or "" of your clan you can read and even save as a text file.If you haven't playedyet, or don't know anything about, you don't need to worry, because the game includes ayou can activate to teach you how to play. And for extra background information, you can read thesection included in the game.You start by creatingby means of a questionnaire. This is like creating your character in a normal RPG videogame, but with the added bonus that in the process you also learn about. However, the choices are, that is, you can only guess what influence they have in your clan. Most of them, however, areto several resources you will start with. For example, if you choose Nyalda in the first question, you will start the game with a temple already built dedicated to her. If later you choose your clan to be known as good herders, that perhaps means your clan advisors may have better skills in that field or perhaps you start with a bigger amount of cattle.After that, the game starts. You play it in turns, divided into the, year after year. Every season, you can performfrom a plethora of options. Before the beginning of each year, a screen shows up where you must assignto help you during the upcoming year in several areas of your choice like Fields (meaning crops), Pastures (meaning herds), Crafts (goods), Health, Harmony (your clan's mood), Diplomacy or War, among others.After that, the usual interface shows up, indicating you are in the first season of the year, marked by the Water rune: Sea Season. One of the first actions you may want to do is to consult your. These are represented by 7 portraits of nobles of your clan who are experts in some area relating to your clan's prosperity. By clicking or tapping on each of them, you get to read their opinions. These vary according to the matter at hand, meaning the particular interface screen you are in, one for each field of action: general mood and situation of your clan, magic, exploration, relations, war and wealth. Consulting your advisors is one of the coolest most original features of, already present in(or KoDP from now on). During interactive scenes you can also consult your advisors. Some of it will just reveal their personality.You can reorganize the council and choose new members. You'll want to have in it each of the most skilled people in every field by checking their stats. But here is one of the. In KoDP it was easy to choose the best team. But in, the best team is not only made up of members of different cults, but members of different families, so you often have to settle for a less than optimal configuration.Another new aspect is. These are year-long activities you can undertake for the well-being of your clan. The list is so long that at first it is difficult to make a choice. For example, you can perform ceremonies to increase your magic, take better care of your cattle, create extra goods, train your warriors and many more.Speaking about, Glorantha is a fantasy world, so there is plenty of it: trolls, dwarves, plant people, curses, magic items, and even crazier things. In this game it is also a world that is growing colder, so you need to buildand, and sacrifice goods and cows to obtain thethat will help you survive. The list of gods is as long as the ventures, but some of their blessings have a greaterthan others (see some tips further down). Apart from the gods, Riders have access to other forms of magic:. Unlike gods, you don't need to sacrifice anything to spirits. You can barter or cajole natural spirits such as Raven, Fox or Salmon, in exchange for their powers. And you can go on expeditions to find more.And then there is even a stronger magic: the. These are rituals in which you reenact the deeds of your deities, and in so doing, obtain a big blessing withfor your clan. In KoDP they are called, and they work the same way. However, inthe world of the gods and the world of mortals haven't been separated yet by the boundaries set by Time and the Great Compromise as in KoDP. That means intheseto perform successfully, provided you. They are a series ofwhere you need to pick the right choices, according to theof your gods and goddesses. You'll want to check up thesection first to carefully read the details, but at times you will need to improvise. The profusion of myths is what makessuch a special setting and its deities much more than just a list of names and powers. They also provideto the culture you are playing, the Hyalorings, because myths tell you about their beliefs and their way of life.This way of life includesother clans to obtain plunder. Even if your clan is not warlike, you will need warriors and fortifications to defend your clan against the attacks of other clans and monsters. If you choose to attack, you can stage aor send a team of infiltrators to. Combat is similar to KoDP in that you just choose your main goal and then your tactics until one of the sides wins. But inyou getduring several rounds, likeor setting aside a, which makes it more fun and tense as you can start losing and then slowly turn the tables, for example. Moreover, at least once during my second game, a second clan got involved in an ongoing fight!That being said,is also an integral part of the game. In thescreen, you can sendto other clans to call ondue, to bear gifts to increase youror perhaps propose an. This aspect has also been improved over KoDP, since now there areother clans may have towards you: Like, Hate, Fear and Mock.And that's not all. In KoDP you mostly interact with clans of your same culture (the Orlanthi). However,is, since there are two main other cultures to interact with: the(Orlanthi) and the, who look more familiar, but have some different cults and traditions. The game unveils the details that make up each culture little by little, but it is interesting to see the Orlanthi from the point of view of the Riders. Why? Because they are the ancestors of theyou fight once and again in KoDP! In fact, theandare one of the central themes of the game (and), and this is wonderfully portrayed through the opinions of your councilors, but mostly through theThese, accompanied by, interrupt the game and poise a problem or opportunity that requires a choice between several options. Most of them have consequences, and they are not easy to predict, which represents very well. Some of them will even spark new scenes later on, as the consequences develop. Fortunately, you can always consult your, but that is not always enough: sometimes they don't help you much or they don't agree on what is best, so in the end it is up to you to decide who to trust. You can even disregard their advice and act on a hunch, but theis always there and that's great. Whatever your final choice, you get to see the directto your stats as they are shown straight away on the screen. Your clan's herds, reputation, mood, goods, population or magic can increase or decrease in this way.These scenes form the. You can start playingfor a variety of reasons. For instance, maybe you like games that are, perhaps you find theintriguing, you enjoygames or you might want to know more about the world of. But the great thing is, you will keep playing one season after another, year after year, mainly because of thethat you weave as you play. To see an example,while playing the game.Inthe same tips I included in my review ofare still valid. Follow the link to know more but it can be boiled down to: mind your, create as manyas you can, and be ready to change tradition when the situation demands it. In the first years, you need to focus on obtaining thethat help you get more: Busenari's and Uryarda'sand Pela's, with Inilla'soptionally. Of course, in order to make sacrifices and get your shrines up you need goods, and having trading partners and blessings that help you get more goods are a must, basically Nyalda'sand Ekarna's. If you need more tips, check out theand the Six Ages wiki . But that would be cheating, so I recommend trying your best before you check that out, specially the wiki. :-)If you like games that focus on telling a good story,is the game for you. I have found myself completely absorbed by this game, in a way that playing 4 hours non-stop passed by in the blink of an eye. The, the, the difficult, the fact that the damned Paral-Uni raided my clan and stole 21 cows from me... all of it contributes to me wanting to keep playing one season after another. And that's the second time I started over, so you can trust the game is. For one thing, the game includes more than 400 interactive scenes, but another incentive can be to explore thesome more, because in only one game you won't be able to explore but a small part of it. So, to wrap up:- The. I especially liked Simon Roy's drawings.- Interactive scenes where you are not sure which is the best option.- Exploring a different culture, different map and different period than in King of Dragon Pass.- The fact the writers have fleshed out the, their looks, their traditions, gods and myths. Seeing one of the human cultures ofcome alive in a videogame with such rich level of detail makes you want to run a roleplaying campaign focused on them!- Getting to know yourby reading their advice and seeing them grow older. I particularly enjoyed the crazy antics of my, which made me laugh out loud.- The uncertainty of not really knowing what youris. If you already have played through the game once, please do not spoil it for other gamers!- Theof that final goal. I love the whole concept.- The fact that they are already working on the next game:- Once you have played the game through once, since you already know what the final goal is, you can make decisions towards it even before you should (although that will also have consequences!).- The fact that there are seasons and years during the time before Time. But of course, without a pattern like that, it would have been impossible to make a videogame set in that period.- When a noble dies just before Sacred Time, because an empty seat means less magic to spend on rituals.- Not knowing yet how and where to find thehidden in the game! :-)The next videogame in theseries is. This will be set during the, the next mythical age before the creation of Time. But if in the Storm Age everything started to go south, in the Great Darkness you are south of south! The world will be at the brink of annihilation, so expect really bad things to happen continually: trolls everywhere, the forces of Chaos penetrate into the world and wreak havoc and gods start dying in droves. I suppose it will be like aIf you manage to survive, the next installment in the series will be, set during the First Age, already within Time. And the next two will be set in the Second and Third Ages. It will be interesting to see how the Hyalorings change and adapt to the big events in each age.is available for iPhone and iPad at the, and for Mac and PC (only for Windows 10, though) atand. The portable version is 11$ whereas the Mac and PC versions are 17$.Have you played this game already?And if you haven't done it yet, you can. You can also read my first adventures with the game . Finally, if you are intrigued by the world of Glorantha portrayed in the game and would like to know more, you might be interested in. If you prefer to explore it by playing a pen-and-paper roleplaying game, check out