You can read this review with photos at MeepleMountain.com
Between 2016 and 2017, Fantasy Flight Games’ business model focused on one-shot board games. This resulted in games such as the Battle of Rokugan and New Angeles with no expansion support. The challenge with this concept is the games need to be vigorously tested and so full of thick content that it could sign a three-season deal with The Learning Channel.
Sadly, Civilization: A New Dawn was none of those. It met with mixed reactions, and I added my voice to that choir.
Without warning, FFG announced an expansion for this game a few months ago and did their usual sales pitch talking about the extra content. What grabbed everyone’s attention was the various changes to the base game, addressing the numerous concerns the community expressed for the past few years. After playing it a few times, I can say with confidence that this expansion turned an interesting concept into a fully realized experience.
Although calling this an expansion feels like I am misrepresenting it because it is an upgrade pack in every sense.
One of the most notable changes is civilization-specific focus cards. A major criticism of the original game was the civilization powers taking a backseat to the gameplay experience. With every civilization having their focus card acting as an alternative to the original focus cards, you will now have an extra tool to play with and provides a differential that was absent in the base game.
Since we are on the topic of focus cards, you now have six instead of five. Your focus bar now has six slots with the two leftmost slots being 1s. The new card is Growth, giving you the option to place districts and reinforce control tokens. Considering the base game made it challenging to reinforce your tokens, it’s good to see an additional opportunity for a defensive playstyle.
As for the districts, think of them as specialized control markers. There are five different types, each having their own set of conditions and characteristics. Slapping a Campus next to some gorgeous mountains and natural wonders will produce scientific trade tokens. If you are a control freak, a Theater Square helps you place some control markers two spaces away with little concern about terrain difficulty.
My issue with districts lies in the tempo. The base game loved to pound its chest with pride about the quick pace, and it did hit this mark like an Olympian archer. 304
Districts slow down this momentum because you now have to take into consideration the location of these districts by examining the terrain types and the potential output. Furthermore, the new event dial has two specific spots for district activation, so there will be turns where everyone has to do their district actions before using their focus cards.
It would be unfair if I only examined one end of the balance scale. Even though I am not a fan of how districts messed with the flow, I can’t ignore the benefits it brings to the table. These five districts hone in on the five main areas of the game and allow you to cultivate your civilization to a particular strategy, something missing in the base game. Like sending your lovely caravans throughout the world? You can build a Commercial Hub so you can get more trade tokens for each mature city. If you got a barbarian problem, then an Encampment is your answer since they eliminate rival pieces every few turns like some sentient bug zapper.
If the specialization stopped right there, I would’ve been fine with that, yet it doesn’t. There is now a government space on the event dial and when it reaches that point, all players will establish a new government. These government tokens boost a card by playing it as if it were further to the right. For example, Democracy gives my research a boost, meaning using a research focus card on the 3rd slot is treated like it was in the 4th slot. This is pretty good so far, but it gets better.
The kicker here is you cannot just pick any government. You must pick a government related to the two “1” slots on your focus bar. Due to this restriction, you are constantly stuck in a crossroad situation as the event dial reaches closer to the government space. Do you use your favored card focus card right now to reset it to the 1 slot to boost it? Or would you rather use it when it reaches your desired apex? It’s a system so simple yet introduces a new way you look at the focus bar.
All of these changes wouldn’t mean much if you can’t expand your empire, and I can finally say that this game has an exploration system. The old way where everyone built a map before the game starts is gone. In its place is the more traditional civilization experience with you exploring beyond your capital tile. As part of the game setup, there will be randomly drawn core tiles that represent the middle of the map, and players will place their capital tiles next to it. 629