Altay: Dawn of Civilization is a deck-building, area-control game.

Title: Altay: Dawn of Civilization

Year Published: 2024

Designer: Paolo Mori, Ole Steiness

Publisher: Ares Games

Players: 2-4

Game Time: ~45 minutes

Set-up Time: ~5 mins for 4 players, 10+ minutes for 2 or 3 players.

Ages: 10+

Theme: Deck-Building, Area-Control

Mechanisms: Deck Building, Resource Management, Area Control.

How to win: Score the most points by developing technologies and wonders and capturing territories around the world.

Game Description

For endless years in a secluded region deep in the heart of a vast continent, four mysterious people have been developing different cultures, merging magic and technology in a delicate balance with nature and among themselves. Now, they must face a challenge: the arrival of new settlers, bringing with them more advanced crafts and technologies, new weapons and fighting techniques, and an entirely different lifestyle.

As the leader of one of the original inhabitants of Altay, how will you react to this challenge? Will you be open to accepting the new settlers and merging with them, or will you focus on your ancient traditions? Will you expand your kingdom or develop new knowledge? Will you build monuments to last forever, or crush your enemies with your armies?

How to play Altay: Dawn of Civilization

Learn how to play Altay: Dawn of Civilization. This is a quick but comprehensive overview of rules to be used as a rules refresher.

Main Mechanisms

Deck-building drives the game with resource management and area control as the core use of that main mechanism.

USP

I’m not sure there is anything unique here.

Theme

The semi-fantasy theme doesn’t really come out. You only really notice it when you play cards like ‘Spellweaver’ etc. Otherwise, you just gain and spend resources without thinking about it.

Setup & Rulebook

The setup has a few fiddly bits where you have to have out a number of cards in each of the stacks depending on the player count. You have to separate the action cards out anyway as you do with any deck-building game with stacks of cards to buy from. But you need 1 technology per player so you have to separate them all out, get the required number, then shuffle them together.

The rulebook is OK. As with a lot of rulebooks, it’s not quite in order with important elements of certain sections either on a different page or in a box all on its own separate from the rest of the text.

There are also some details that are either missing or poorly explained.

Components & Artwork

The resources and settlements are nice wooden pieces. There is a more expensive version with nice plastic settlements out there but I’m growing up and I don’t need that anymore.

The card stock is average but not good enough for a deck-building game, the cards will need to be sleeved.

The iconography is minimal which helps with gameplay. The art is a really nice style, pleasing to look at.

Ease of Teaching

The game is fairly easy to teach. There are a few unwritten caveats that need to be made clear and remembered as the game goes on.

Similar Games

It’s a simpler, quicker and smoother version of Monumental which is also a deck-building civ game.

Altay: Dawn of Civilization Review

Positives

Simple and familiar gameplay.

There is a fair bit going on with a lot to think about.

Nice components for the settlements and resources.

The art has a distinctive style that I really like.

Negatives

There are some not-so-intuitive elements on the board like the rivers and a weird dashed area in the middle that makes you question adjacency.

Set up with fewer than 4 players is a total pain, as is putting the game away afterwards.

Altay: Dawn of Civilization Round-Up

A very fun and challenging game that has you using very limited resources to the best of your ability while fending off attackers!

Rating

I give it 6/10