This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames.
Game: Age of Innovation
Designer: Helge Ostertag
Year: 2023
Country: Germany
Publisher: Capstone Games
Age of Innovation is a reimplementation of the same basic design that’s already been published as Terra Mystica and Gaia Project. Once again, each player controls a people who want to spread and control territory, building and expanding. The game board is composed of terrain hexes, and each people need a specific terrain type to thrive. For example, for me it was lakes. The game’s core action is to terraform and build. I’d terraform desert into lakes and build workshops to spread my settlement.
A full information game, Age of Innovation has no randomizing element once a game has begun, meaning that you can theoretically calculate the impact of a lot of different outcomes. This becomes particularly important near the end, when every player is trying to squeeze out the most victory points from their last resources.
The game consists of six rounds during each of which the players can make as many actions as their resources allow. Once a new round starts, an income phase provides more resources and construction can continue. There is a random element in the game’s setup as each round has its own victory point conditions which are drawn blind. There are also innovation tiles which can be claimed if you have enough books, the selection of which is again random.
At the start of the game, you have to make a selection of seven playable peoples, each of which consists of three randomly drawn elements. Each player gets to choose one. This together with the randomly chosen tiles on the board means that even an experienced player has to make a new analysis of the landscape with every game.
Age of Innovation has a vague renaissance fantasy theme, but like with its predecessors, the design is the main attraction here. Terra Mystica and Gaia Project were already excellent games, and it feels like Age of Innovation perfects the design.