Anytime there is a new game from designer Vital Lacerda, I am excited to see what it is going to bring. What world will we adventure in? What mechanics and gameplay will be woven together into a tapestry that always shines? Well, wait no longer because there is a new game on the horizon in Inventions: Evolution of Ideas!
Inventions is the newest game from the team of designer Vital Lacerda, artist Ian O’Toole and publisher Eagle-Gryphon Games. It plays 2-4 players in approximately 2 hours.
Overview:
In Inventions players introduce ideas that will eventually become inventions, shared out to the world. Boosted inventions can be even bigger, giving players more ways to score points. Each player operates a society that is trying to gain the most Ingenuity Points (IP) Have the most and you win!
Gameplay:
Inventions is a strategic game full of choices that will continue to challenge and excite even the most seasoned player.
In Inventions, the core of the game is putting out Ideas that become Inventions and eventually can be shared with the world. The game is played over time as Chronos marched forward, every moving and pushing towards the end. Keep your society ahead of him and you are ahead of the times. Fall behind, and you are behind the times.
The game is played through the actions taken on a Forum, each with two different action spaces. When you take an action from one of the Forum spots you cannot come back there until all your pieces are gone. Each turn you are moving one of your pillars based on the current age. Chain actions allow you take extra actions based on your influence currently on the board.
The game lasts 14 total rounds over six eras. Each time you take an action, depending on your influence you may be able to chain extra actions based on the action selected. There are numerous ways to make this happen, and through gameplay we were able to find ways to string multiple actions in one turn.
On your turn, there are four steps to take each time. These include:
1-Prepare chain actions
2-Perform actions
3-Aspirations become progress tiles
4-Build progress tiles
The actions available all have a specific sequence that must be followed when you play them. By picking an action, you are locked out of that forum until you no longer have a piece in that space. The actions are as follows:
Present an Idea: Here players will take one of their ideas and present it out on to the board, gaining an action from the specialist tile.
Invent: Taking an existing Idea and flipping it to the Invention side, also take a tech tile and move specialists on to the invent space.
Innovate: Take the Invention of another player and make it better by adding one of your own Specialists. This also allows you to chain an action off of that Invention.
Share an Invention: Taking an Invention and sharing it benefits everyone who has been involved with it The presenter of the idea who gets IP, the inventor who gets the card and the innovator who gets extra population. You also take a wealth tile for yourself.
Call Specialists: This allows you to call back Citizens from the world map, gain an Aspiration token and chain one of your Inventions.
Gain Influence: Choose a region where you don’t have Influence and you have a majority and possibly chain an action on one of your Influence tokens.
Travel: Gain an Aspiration Token, move a citizen on the map and chain an action with the Sage.
Eureka: Move a card out of the common knowledge and gain a new private milestone. This also allows you to move up on the era track and gain the benefit.
Send Diplomat: Adding a specialist to another tile and taking a benefit on the card.
Call Diplomat: Take a citizen from a milestone home and use that action.
After actions are selected, gained aspiration tiles become newly picked Progress tiles and are added below you board. Each turn you can use available specialists to try and build some of your progress tiles.
The Eras continue with breaks between to reset. The final scoring occurs and players will score their private goals, wealth tiles and current Influence. The player with the most points wins!
Impressions:
Inventions is another well-designed game from the team of Lacerda and O’Toole. I have found their games to be some of my favorites over time, as they are easy to understand but hard to master. The game presents limited choices with each turn, making you work harder to find where the chains are to get the most out of your turns. The symbology is clear and once you get the rhythm of the game it becomes easier to know what is next.
I love how well this game ties together the actions and the involvement of each player in taking the Idea to eventually being shared as an Invention. Don’t get left behind in any particular part of the equation and you will continue to find ways to advance in the game. I personally loved being able to Innovate an Invention and then Share it with the world.
The graphic design and components are top of the line as always, Ian O’Toole is giving us some stellar symbology and art that really ties the game together on the table. I love all the attention to detail that a good Lacerda game brings and this is no exception. I found myself learning and picking up on all the symbology pretty quickly as it flowed in a way that all seemed logical and sequential. There is something smooth about the Idea to Invention to Innovation to Sharing with the World movement that just makes sense in this game.
Overall this is a game I cannot wait to get back to the table and play again soon. It is deep, challenging and every bit the crunchy game I want and expect when Eagle-Gryphon teams up with this team. Make sure to check it out on Kickstarter today!
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