Meet the Zhou: A Civilization of GMT’s Ancient Civilizations of East Asia
By Mark McLaughlin & Fred Schachter
The Zhou were one of the key civilizations which helped define China and its culture. They endured for some 789 years, from c. 1046 BC until 256 BC, the longest span of any dynasty in Chinese history. Their core source of power was not of the coin or the sword – but of the pen.
The Zhou prized knowledge above all else and are credited with not so much creating but finalizing the symbology that became the universal written language of China. This advancement is represented by their Chinese Writing Finalized ability, which not only allows them to advance on the Cultural Development Display at a discount, but also gives them the unique ability to hold up to seven cards in their hand (as opposed to every other civilization which is limited to, at most, six cards).
The Zhou still acquire cards in the same manner as any ACEA civilization, but they have the ability to acquire that seventh card (e.g. through spending a tael out of its Treasury during a turn’s Draw Phase). This not only gives them more options, but also allows Zhou the opportunity to have one more Round of card play than those whose hands are limited to six.
To learn more about the fascinating Zhou, see: Zhou dynasty – Wikipedia. There are also a number of fascinating YouTube videos regarding them, for those of you who prefer video.
Figure 1: ACEA’s Civilization Card for the Zhou: This card format should be familiar to those who’ve played either of the other two games of GMT’s “Ancient Civs.” Series: Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea and/or Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East. See either of these games’ GMT Sites available Rulebooks for more information.
What’s new with ACEA is the “Build Your Own Civilization” Section, which allows players to modify the Zhou Civilization through an optional rule and the “Philosophy” Section. When the Zhou player selects a Philosophy, a white disk is placed over the choice to memorialize it: e.g. if “Traditionalism” is chosen, the player gets two additional disks out of its Supply each turn to place in its “Disks for Growth” Section. This selection can be a great boon as the Zhou seek to expand.
It should be noted that the Zhou Civilization is present as a player selection for every Standard ACEA Set-Up for 2-6 players. The photo below is of a two-player Ancient Civilizations of East Asia play test game:
Figure 2: A Two Player ACEA Game with the Zhou (Blue Disks) versus the Shang (Red Disks): This photo was taken during the October 2025 Fall Assembly Gaming Convention in North Carolina. The ACEA game pictured above was a two-player contest which Designer Fred Schachter (in the red shirt) GM’d. The fellow next to Fred is Seth, who was playing the red disk Shang Empire, while opposite him is Jeremy playing the blue disk Zhou Empire. They began peaceably enough by simply expanding their respective empires about the map, with Seth’s Shang having the advantage of beginning the game with control of most of the Fertile Areas around the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers: Ancient China’s legendary heartland.
Read our earlier article about the Shang for ACEA!
The two rivals also did what they could to advance their civilizations on ACEA’s Cultural Development Tracks Display, which consists of three Tracks: “Military-Political”, “Economic-Social”, and “Religious-Intellectual”, with the Zhou having the advantage of spending one less Resource for each of its advancements.
The peace between them, unsurprisingly, did not last. Hostilities began with each inflicting various natural disasters, Barbarian invasions, dynastic disputes, tax and peasant revolts – all manner of mayhem – via the game’s “Karma Cards”! Ultimately, through outright invasion resulting in several Shang cities being captured and sacked, the Zhou Empire prevailed with all of us having a fun and entertaining time!
With two experienced gamers such as Seth and Jeremy, the rules were quickly grasped, and three Epochs played in approximately three hours of fast paced exciting action. Ah, the “table talk” bandied about!
Figure 3: The Zhou Civilization’s initial placement of disks on ACEA’s playtest map: The “H” piece indicates the Homeland of Zhou (Note: the final version of the ‘H’ game’s component will be similar to ACME’s Homeland Blocks). Light brown indicates clear Arable areas, dark brown Mountain, light green Fertile, dark green Jungle and, of course, blue represents rivers.
The Zhou are well positioned to expand in several directions, north to the Arable areas abutting the great deserts, south into SE Asia or eastward into the Chinese Fertile heartland: the latter expansion as done historically as well as during the ACEA playtest game pictured above.
During another convention’s five Civilization game, the Zhou player cleverly built his “Great Wall”, a series of adjacent Strongholds, to mitigate potential Barbarian invasions out of SE Asia and the West map edge (it was impressive to behold!). This confounded threats from several of the other players and, with Zhou’s Cultural Development Display discount made that player a force to reckon with. Ah, but gaming being gaming: what a coalition the Zhou created in opposition!
Figure 4: The Zhou Civilization’s Great Wall (comprising adjacent Stonghold Cubes turned red side-up) on ACEA’s playtest map: This was a notable Ancient Civilizations of East Asia five player time limit convention game with five contenders loath to directly attack each other via evil “Take That!” Karma Cards or disk placements resulting in Competitions with possible City Sacking. These guys were intent on “peacefully” competing on the Cultural Development Tracks Display which made this contest more of a “Civilization Building” than a “Civilization Survival” game for most of its course (yup, “most” and assuredly not “all” of that game’s duration). More to come in future InsideGMT articles regarding how cards can be used as Resources to advance a Civilization’s counters on the Cultural Development Tracks Display or “buy” stuff for their Controlled Areas: e.g. a Stronghold, Terrace/Improved Irrigation System, or Workshop.
But, as previously mentioned, the Zhou player, to contend with the possibility of certain MUST PLAY Barbarian Invasion Event Cards being directed at his empire, built at a cumulative cost of 18 Resources, a line of Strongholds that became the longest on the Ancient Civilizations of East Asia map and let him declare The Great Wall. This should be considered more like extensive interlocked “fortified zones” rather than the massively impressive edifice of the historical Great Wall of China which was built after ACEA’s Epoch IV.
What’s pictured in the above Figure 4 is a stylized illustration of this game’s Zhou Empire with its Great Wall. The Zhou player has blue disks demarking their empire along with its Strongholds. Not shown are the other four Civilizations of this game nor area contents such as disk differentiation into Camps, Settlements, Cities, and/or Terrace/Improved Irrigation Systems, Workshops, or other Civilization Strongholds.
Hopefully, this illustration shows how MUST PLAY Barbarian Invasion Event Cards from the south, e.g Must Play Event Card #108, “Jungle Warriors” (“Hordes of Wild Men Erupt from Jungles”) or from the west, Must Play Event Card #109, “Fire from the West” (“Indian and Central Asian Empires Expand”) have their black disk placements impeded by the Zhou Great Wall.
Next up, one of the Zhou’s rivals… their nearby neighbor and potential enemy to the southeast, with their Homeland placeable in either of the two Arable areas of Wuzhou or Changsha, or the Fertile area of Luoyang: any one of which is threateningly close to the Zhou’s areas of interest… the Jin (Wu)!
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