7 Ages Setup and First Turn

About 7 Ages: Collector's Edition, from BoardGameGeek:

7 Ages is a game covering 6000 years of human history from 4000 bce to today. Up to 7 players lead up to 21 dynasties that decide the fate of the world across the ages. You, as a dynastic head of one or more civilisations must guide your people through history gaining glory points for historical, scientific, religious and cultural advances as you increase their health, wealth and prestige. All the leading figures of history are included, as they attempt to influence events and their society through their great words and deeds. Are you game to change history? Originally released in 2004 now, after ten years further development and 2 years of intense work with a dedicated team of testers and editors, 7 Ages has been dramatically enhanced, expanded and streamlined. 7 Ages: the Collector's edition includes 67 new civilisation cards, 165 in total. There are counters for 6 new empires, 21 in total, allowing up to 7 players to control 3 empires each, as you vie for a peaceful prosperous planet (under your benign control naturalich). The maps have been graphically updated, new areas included and they will be hard-mounted on our beautiful linen boards. To increase the scientific and artistic aspects of the game, artefacts have been dramatically expanded and improved. There are 17 new artefact types you can build and 155 artefacts in total, more than double the 70 in the original game. Leadership has also been dramatically enhanced, with 130 named leaders and 43 unnamed leaders (up from 72 and 22 respectively) throughout history (but only one current serving, sorry boys you just don't cut the mustard anymore). We have also doubled the number of options from 6 to 12 including 3 that are part of the 7 Ages Expansion sets, Secret Victory, Neutral Kingdoms and Deus Vult!. Secret Victory is an easy way to keep everyone's glory secret so no one knows who is really winning. Neutral Kingdoms means provinces are no longer denuded when an empire is discarded. Even if you have given up on them, the people still live there and don't take kindly to strangers (not to mention former overlords). Deus Vult! is a religious expansion that allows empires to explore a variety of religions and the building of temples to their God or Gods. Not cheap, but what price Glory? And all this in 10 pages of rules and 2 pages of optional rules. Never, in the annals of human history, has so much been provided to so many in one glorious game with so few rules to fret on. -description from publisher's website