Tech Trees / Tech Tracks

In Nova Era, players guide their civilization from humble tribal beginnings to vast scientific empires, navigating the twists and turns through eras of history. Harness the power of technology, expand territories, and enlist famous (and sometimes infamous) personalities from across history. Civilizations face constant threats from rival nations, natural disasters, social unrest, and the ever-looming possibility of a dark age.

The objective of Nova Era is to build the greatest civilization. This is done by strategically choosing the most beneficial technologies, territories, and personalities from the tableau, evolving them as the players go through the annals of time. Players score by having a variety and/or majority of different technology types, as well as fulfilling various card objectives.

Gameplay revolves around drafting and spending dice, with different dice types providing different resources, bonuses, and penalties for players. Overextending your own dice leads to civil unrest, and dice unused by players fill up the progress bars of natural disasters and the Dark Age, affecting all players across the table. Once all dice actions are taken, an era ends and a new one begins. At the end of three eras, the game ends and the most prosperous civilization wins!

—description from the publisher

Hello, student beings! The cosmic faculty of the Technical Academy of Creation is delighted to welcome you to your Civolution, the final exam in Civilization Design!

For this occasion, we prepared a humanoid scenario on an isolated continent. Here, each of you holds the rank of a local deity which is closely linked to its very own civilization and must lead it to success over the other civilizations. Your developmental possibilities are endless and reach from cultural and technical progress to evolutional adaptations. For example, what would you consider more beneficial to your tribes: inventing the wheel or growing wings? Demonstrate your ability to operate your civilization console and show us how well you can adjust to changeable environmental conditions and mild creational chaos.

When the exam ceases after four eras, whoever managed to gather the most success points will not only pass the exam but will become a full member of the Technical Academy of Creation and garner the opportunity to be promoted to the next instance.

Civolution is a medium heavy to heavy euro-style game that utilizes a dice selection mechanism to trigger actions on a tech tree-like structure. As you figure out how to best use your dice and put your unique cards into play, tons of strategies and paths to victory emerge, though each time you play, you will only explore a fraction of the possibilities that the game’s system and many cards provide.

—description from the publisher

A webapp implementation of the V.I.C.I solo automa is available.

In Sankoré: The Pride of Mansa Musa, a dynamic, interactive, mid-weight Eurogame, 1-4 players manage the prestigious University of Sankoré in 14th-century Timbuktu, tasked by the emperor Mansa Musa with spreading knowledge throughout West Africa, even as the great university is raised around them.

By enrolling and graduating your pupils, teaching classes, adding to your curriculum, and filling the great library with books, you will advance knowledge in four main disciplines: theology, law, mathematics, and astronomy. Once construction of the university is complete, the value that the empire places on each discipline will dramatically affect how you score the knowledge you have passed on.

In a dedicated solo mode, you compete against the "Distinguished Scholar", a passionate and ambitious academic controlled by an elegant automated system. They may not be as nimble as you, but they are focused and driven and will strive to produce the best possible students.

Can you navigate the corridors of academic competition and bring renown to Mansa Musa's prized university?

—description from the publisher

Plunge into the modern era, where our planet's vast interconnected ocean scape is one of the last frontiers to discover and explore. Experience a deep new ever-changing adventure in this followup to the smash hit Endeavor: Age of Sail!

In Endeavor: Deep Sea, you head an independent research institute with the goal of developing sustainable projects and preserving the fragile balance of marine life. Throughout the game, you’ll recruit field experts and use their abilities to explore new locations, research dive sites, publish critical ecological papers, and launch conservation efforts.

Expand your expertise, develop your team, and learn as much as possible about the sea. The action your institute takes now, could mean a healthy ocean and a sustainable future for the planet.

Endeavor: Deep Sea is designed by Jarratt Gray and Carl de Visser, the same creative team behind the smash hit Endeavor: Age of Sail. This edition is set in a new era of nautical discovery, but uses streamlined rules which will be familiar to fans of the original game.

—description from the publisher

At this time, it's not clear whether Kingsburg (Third Edition) differs substantially from the second edition, so BGG is creating a listing for this item that will perhaps be merged away in time. In any case, the setting is the same:

Kingsburg: 3rd Edition includes the most updated rulebook and the best expansion modules developed since its 1st edition, such as the Soldier tokens, the Governor cards, and the extra buildings. Furthermore, the artwork and design have been restyled while components have been redesigned.

The realm of Kingsburg is under attack! Monstrous invaders are gathering at the borders, aiming to invade and plunder the realm! Your king has chosen you to take charge of a province on the border; you will manage your province and help defend the realm. To accomplish this, you must influence the King's advisors and the Royal Family to obtain gold, wood, stones, and soldiers to expand and defend your lands. But you are not the only governor seeking the aid of the advisers! The other players also seek to collect the best resources for their own territories.

King Tritus is waiting for you. Will you be able to be the most influent and powerful governor of the realm?

The game of Kingsburg takes place over five years, a total of twenty turns. In every year, there are three production seasons for collecting resources, building structures, and training troops. Every fourth turn is the winter, in which all the players must fight an invading army. Each player must face the invaders, so this is not a cooperative game.

The resources to build structures and train troops are collected by influencing the advisers in the King's Council. Players place their influence dice on members of the Council, and each adviser awards different resources or allocate soldiers, victory points, and other advantages to the player who was able to influence that adviser for the current turn. The player with the lowest influence dice sum is the first to choose where to spend their influence; this acts as a way of balancing poor dice rolling. Even with a very unlucky roll, a clever player can still come out from the Council with a good number of resources and/or soldiers.

At the end of five years, the player who best developed their assigned territory and most pleased the King through the Council wins.