Dominations: Road to Civilization

Description

In this strategic Civilisation-building game, you’ll be working to transform a primitive tribe into a fully-fledged nation whose influence will stand the test of time. A game of Dominations lasts 3 rounds, with each round representing a time span of around 1000 years in the history of your Civilisation. During these centuries you will spread into new territories, build Cities and Monuments, and develop different skills.

Each player turn is split into 3 phases : Grow, Build, and Develop.

During the Grow phase, you’ll be placing Land tiles to gain Knowledge points, which are the resources you’ll require to progress. There are 6 types of Knowledge available: Government, Craft, Art, Religion, Trade, and Science, each represented by a colour. Land tiles have different configurations of coloured jewels on them, and you gain resources based on the colours present on the tiles you join together. These colours don’t need to match, but if they do, you generate additional Knowledge points. You are free to place your tiles wherever you wish, based on the resources you need.

During the Build Phase, you can construct Cities and Monuments. To build a City, you simply pay resources of the colour of the Land tile you wish to build it on. Cities grant several different benefits: they increase your Influence score, increase the amount of Knowledge points you can store, and gain you a Knowledge bonus each time a new Land tile is placed next to them.

Monuments are common objectives that all players can contribute to, and are built level by level. As with Cities, Monuments cost resources of a specific type. Players gain special bonuses and points for each level they build, and the player with the most levels gains additional rewards.

During the Develop Phase, you can acquire Mastery cards, which represent the skills and disciplines your nations excels in. Each time you gain a Mastery card it will grant you special bonuses, such as allowing you to produce resources faster. Your Mastery cards are laid out in front of you to constitute your Civilization Tree, which introduces an additional puzzle to the game – Mastery cards sport coloured jewels that must match those of the card they are joined to.

At the end of each Age, you’ll score Victory points based on your Influence. But that’s not all – the player with the most remaining points of any one Knowledge type acquires a special advantage for the next Age. Will you spend all of your resources to get as far ahead as you can during this Age, or save some of them to gain a stronger start for the next one?

By the end of the game’s three Ages, you’ll have built an impressive machine, combining the rewards of your Mastery cards, Cities and Monuments to maximum effect.

Dominations: Road to Civilization is an expert, strategic Eurogame that will challenge even the most experienced players. Deep without being overly complex, the basic principles of the game are easy to learn, but the seemingly endless strategic possibilities and card combinations are sure to keep you coming back for more!

If you still can’t get enough, Dominations also has four expansions:

Dynasties adds a drafting mechanic to the game, in which you recruit the most prestigious members of your nation’s greatest families. These cards will give you additional bonuses each Age, and can also gain you extra points at the end of the game if you create collections of cards of the same type.

Hegemon adds common objectives that players will have to battle it out for each Age! These objectives change each Age and are worth a lot of points. However, fulfilling might force you to modify your strategy, so it will be up to you to decide if you change your plans or allow your adversaries to score all of the points.

Provinces adds whole new nations to the game. These neutral peoples can be conquered, befriended or avoided, but whichever action you choose will have consequences for your Civilization, for better or for worse!

Silk Road allows you to connect your cities and those of other players together with trade routes, gaining you extra points and bonuses.

Want to play Solo? Dominations : Road to Civilization also has a free PnP Solo mode, which can be downloaded here.