How to play Age of Innovation & Review

Age of Innovation is a resource management, route-building game.

Title: Age of Innovation

Year Published: 2023

Designer: Helge Ostertag

Publisher: Capstone Games, Feuerland Spiele

Players: 1-5

Game Time: ~200 minutes

Set-up Time: ~15 minutes

Ages: 14+

Theme: The Terra Mystica Universe.

Mechanisms: Resource Management, Route Building

How to win: Score the most points over 6 rounds

Game Description

Twelve factions, each with unique characteristics, populate this world of varying terrains. Here you will compete to erect buildings and merge them into cities. Each game allows you to create new combinations of factions, homelands, and abilities so that each game isn’t the same as another.

You control one of these factions and will terraform the game map’s terrain into your homelands where you can erect your buildings. Proximity to other factions may limit your expansion, but it also gains you significant advantages in the game.

How to play Age of Innovation

Learn how to play Age of Innovation!

Main Mechanisms

A big part of the game is resource management. Another big part is the building of a large connected pathway of buildings so I always call this route building even though I know it’s a stretch. But building that out and blocking people off is part of the game.

USP

The USP of this game is that it’s the very popular Terra Mystica with extra steps.

Theme

It’s interesting, in TM it felt like fantasy races on a territorial and religious war. Now it feels more peaceful, with the focus on education. They’re still fighting for land though.

Setup & Rulebook

Setup takes ages. There is a lot to do and now selecting a race is a 4 step process that can be quite slow.

The rulebook is not very clear. It’s very text-heavy just like TM and doesn’t clarify things that maybe need it.

Components & Artwork

I’m not a huge fan, just like Terra Nova the buildings aren’t perfect with chunks missing off some of the wooden buildings. At least the paint wasn’t sticking like the last version of this game.

The dual-layer player boards are great.

The art is OK.

Ease of Teaching

If players know how to play TM then it’s great, if not it’s a chore.

Similar Games

I’ve already mentioned Terra Mystica and Terra Nova so I might as well mention the space version Gaia Project here too.

Age of Innovation Summary

Positives

Familiar gameplay with extra steps.

There is more variability in the available actions and bonuses than in the other versions of this game.

They simplified some rules from TM with the updates they made in Terra Nova.

Moving away from religion and cults to science and education is a good move.

The dual-layered player boards make things so much easier and tidier for the player.

The mixing of terrain and race selection mixes the game up a bit but…

Negatives

…it means the races have lost their unique personality.

It’s a table hog!

It’s also a pain to teach new players.

I wanted Terra Mystica with Gaia Projects tech track and we didn’t quite get that here.

Age of Innovation Round-Up

Not 100% what I wanted but it’s still very good, It’s staying on the shelf with the other 3 but something has to go at some point!

Terra Nova has to stay for its accessibility, but only one of the others will survive, just have to decide which one.

Rating

I give it 9/10