Acropolis

Cost: 2/3

+1 strength, +1 culture

Your urban building limit is 1 higher.

Peaceful change of government costs you 1 science less for each urban building you have.

Acropolis in History
What's even better than building a castle on a hill? Why, building the entire city on a hill, of course! That must be what the pre-mycenaean people thought when they decided to climb the limestone hills in what was to become Athens, and built their first temple-city. Acropolis, it was later named, meaning "high city", it made for a truly well-defensible location.

The Acropolis was destroyed and then rebuilt again several times, as new people and new gods passed ownership of the area. During the Classical period was when the it gained its most iconic structure that we now know and love – the Parthenon temple. Dedicated to the virgin goddess Athena that the people of the area saw as their matron and protector, the temple served as an offering of thanks to the gods for helping defeat the Persians.

But no temple can stand long against concentrated cannon fire! As the Turks saw when the city was being bombarded by Venetians in the 17th century. All of Acropolis was, hopefully for the last time, reduced to rubble atop a hill. And so, the Parthenon that we enjoy now is but the ruin of the original marble temple, but no less beautiful and thought-provoking than when it stood in full glory.

Designer's Note
Acropolis gives your civilization both its own benefit – strength, for its well defendable position, and culture, for beauty of its architecture – but also a symbolic one. It represents the rising importance of cities and their growth. And in Through the Ages, the size of cities is represented by the urban limit. The bigger the cities are, the more they need and support the transition to advanced forms of government… which allows them to grow even further.

Acropolis was one of my favorite wonders, because it encouraged and rewarded a bit of a different style of play. Three Age A labs, then cheap Monarchy or Theocracy, and then one more lab? We are ready for Darwin. To let your cities grow and change government three times during the game? With Acropolis, not a bad idea. Five Age III labs with Sid Meier? Let’s build the Internet on top of that! And so on. On the other hand, it needed several steps of tweaking, to be competitive. Because you know, when your opponents start the arms race, you can rarely invest so many people to urban buildings.

However, I think it ended up well, and Acropolis is now a good and interesting choice in Age A.